Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

Families are absolutely broken and struggling with the cost of childcare. Very often, I am not sure people in this place fully understand the pressure the cost of childcare puts on families. That is if families even can get a place. There are some people for whom money is no issue but they simply cannot find a place because of the underinvestment in childcare. For those for whom money is an object, if one is paying a mortgage or rent and on top of that one has two children in full-time childcare or early years education, that could cost another €1,500 or €2,000, if one can get a place. For an awful lot of families, more than two thirds of their income is gone before they even consider food, bills, clothes or anything else. I do not believe those in the political system properly understand the pressure people are under. Some families have absolutely nothing left.

There are other families where parents, predominantly women, are being kept at home because they cannot find a place or they cannot find a full-time place. We do not have a childcare service in this country. We have a childcare sector. We have fantastic people working in the sector. We have never built a proper childcare service because we have never looked at it, as we should have, as a public good that is in the interests of our people, children and parents and requires proper staffing and support and a national structure. That is why this motion tabled by Deputy Claire Kerrane is so important. We need a public system. We need to be working towards that and we need a roadmap. How did the Government parties, particularly Fine Gael, get away with the promises they made during the last election campaign regarding the occupied territories Bill, the means test for carers and childcare that were simply cast aside and forgotten about as soon they entered into government?

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