Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was amused on the first day of the new term to see the words "public good" in the Government amendment. Between the lot of you, you would not know public good from public bad if it jumped up and bit you. There is the overpriced daylight-robbery bike shed or the abuse of Irish airspace to commit genocide in Gaza. All of a sudden when Sinn Féin publishes its childcare plan, the Government is out of its private traps on the public road to Damascus. Who is it kidding? It knows full well that our plan is an emergency intervention to keep families going now while we build a proper public service in childcare because parents cannot wait any longer. They need our help now.

North Kildare mothers are desperate to find childcare places for their babies. These are highly qualified women, some of them teachers, and this is why we have a teacher shortage. Imagine a shortage in the public good of the education system.

Thankfully, the Sinn Féin childcare policy is a game changer in the care of our children with €10 per day. Is rud iontach é an obair a rinne an Teachta Claire Kerrane san ábhar tábhachtach seo. Unlike the Government Deputies, with their devotion to vultures, cuckoos and appeasing Apple billionaires; republican politics lives and breathes public good. With us, the current €800 childcare costs would drop to €200 a month. That is a saving of €600. I know that €600 may not seem like a lot when the Government can lash out €336,000 on a bike shed but for parents in north Kildare, that saving would mean that they can have a life and that they can afford the price of a new washing machine or a child's school trip because life is short. I say to the Government to get back into its private box and leave the public good to the politicians who know and defend it. Sinn Féin will make social provision a reality and not just a cheap election promise.

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