Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this subject, which has an impact on all families.

As I listened to the debate yesterday, and again today, I thought back to my own time, when our children were small. We were lucky enough to be able to build a house in rural Ireland beside my parents and brother. Childminding was not as big an issue then because we had family support around us when our children were small. The children could be minded by my grandmother, my sister-in-law next door, or whoever. It worked well. There was a kind of meitheal in that because people worked with one another. Costs were not really an issue because it was all done on the basis that we were all a family. As time went on, and as those children grew up and my grandmother got older, those same children were able to help her out and keep her at home longer. My point is that we had an ideal situation in rural Ireland, but because of these rules and regulations that have come in regarding where we can build houses and pressurised areas, we have isolated and split up families. Some of them are living in towns and do not have that necessary back-up they used to have.

I will say two or three things about the Bill. The system is overly regulated, overly bureaucratic, and is driving childcare providers out of business. They just do not want to be involved; it is too cumbersome. When we say that people are on a waiting list to get into a childminding service, that should ring alarm bells because the services are not there. Some of the people who were providing services have left because it was more trouble than it was worth. I am worried about the fact that there are too many regulations and too much paperwork to be done. The question is for what gain. The Minister talked about health and safety, planning permission, fire certification and so on. Those are all taken as a given, but there is significantly more paperwork that has to be done. The providers may not have the expertise to deal with all this paperwork. They then run into trouble if every piece of paper is not right when a Tusla inspection takes place. That in itself is creating uncertainty. In addition, it means that a lot more money has to be spent on regulating premises. That is reducing providers' overall funding and means that they cannot pay as much to the employees working for them. It has a roll-on effect.

The Minister talked about consultation. He said there was some consultation leading up to this Bill being introduced. Consultation is one thing, but it is only when things are put into practice that people realise whether they are working or not, especially when we are talking about additional regulations and giving more powers to Tusla. I will ask a number of questions about Tusla. Is it equipped to monitor and enforce the regulations that are there? Has it the necessary resources to oversee what we are asking it to oversee? As an agency, it has many other irons in the fire. I get reports that it just does not have the resources to deal with things. Time goes by, maybe six or eight weeks of toing and froing, before it will respond to certain queries coming from providers.

My fear is that we will end up in a situation where we will have a fine, highly regulated service, but we will find it hard to get private providers to deliver what is required. We have a population that is increasing. We have additional demand for the service because most people are working and people are living where they do not have family supports. They are living in towns where the support is not there and there is a huge and increased demand for childminding. Often, people have to go to work to pay for their mortgage and make sure they provide for their family; that is both husband and wife or two people in the house. Childminding, therefore, becomes a very big part of their overall lives up until their children leave national school.

It is important that whatever we put in place, it will be workable, flexible and will allow those people who are carrying out inspections the ability and agility to make common-sense decisions when problems arise. I have come across cases where places were closed down because providers did not have the paperwork right. There was nothing wrong with the service they were giving. I know of one service where parents were totally supportive of what was being done but because the person running it did not have that necessary skill to fill out all the paperwork that was required, and have computer literacy to keep on top of that paperwork, what was a small unit eventually had to close. There was then a big furore over where those children were to go the following morning. Men and women were taking time off work to try to mind their children while the emergency was sorted out. That is the kind of situation we are involved in. Simplicity and simple rules and regulations, properly enforced, will deliver a better service for less money and will probably make the industry more attractive for people to provide the service. That is what we have to achieve.

I encourage the Minister to look at this from the point of view of not making something that is over-regulated. While standards have to be met, the important thing is what we do to make sure we have a children's service that is workable, safe and not over-regulated.

I wish the Minister well in his endeavours over the next period, along with his colleague, in their party's leadership race.

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