Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for the motion. Although I have concerns about it, I appreciate that the tenor of it is to reduce the cost for parents and I fully support that. What is missing is a commitment to the provision of public childcare and the operation of childcare. I know the Minister has done his best to reduce the cost and has brought in schemes, but he has ignored what the citizens' assembly asked for more than four years ago. It told us that 98% of childcare staff are female, the hourly wage of childcare staff is 43.5% below average, almost 80% of childcare workers do not have sick pay and so on. Four years ago, it recommended to move, over the next decade, to a publicly-funded, accessible and regulated model. No progress has been made. The National Women's Council called for this before the last election and for the budget, asking to bring in publicly-funded childcare, publicly operated for the benefit of all. In a July 2023 survey conducted by Excel Recruitment, we are told that almost 60% of couples with children said that one partner had given up work due to the cost of childcare and in the majority of cases it was the woman. I have one minute left. In every election since 2011 it has been about housing, health and childcare. Parents have literally been pulling their hair out at the door, saying they are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage. Every single election that is the theme. At some stage, sense has to prevail. We have a job to do as the Opposition to point out what we think is the best solution, notwithstanding the good attempts the Minister has made. It is all patchwork quilt and again from Sinn Féin tonight, it is patchwork, without an overall vision and a time set to implement that vision for public childcare. Nothing in education should be based on profit. If we have learned anything from Covid and from the declaration of the climate emergency, it is transformative change. For the time I have left, I will keep using those two words. Transformative change has to mean something. We start with public childcare, publicly operated, publicly funded.

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