Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth, for coming to the House. I want to talk to her about childcare, particularly in Kilcullen, County Kildare, in my constituency. It was the end of July when I was contacted via email and phone by a number of families in Kilcullen about the lack of childcare in that growing town.

I met with a large number of mothers on a very sunny day outside a local community centre. I was immediately struck by their concerns and the problems they were facing. I was informed about the Kilcullen Needs Childcare group following that first meeting and set about finding the extent of the problem facing those mothers and their families, many of whom are new to the town of Kilcullen. In the last two months, that survey has identified 110 families facing childcare difficulties in Kilcullen. This figure translates into 153 children in need of childcare or after-school places in Kilcullen. Kilcullen is a growing town and only last Saturday I was delighted to be invited to the official opening of the field of dreams, which is a brilliant €1 million development by the local GAA club that will future-proof the GAA needs of the town and provide a community walkway, which is already getting great use. However, there is no doubt that there is a problem regarding childcare. This problem will only worsen. Local reporter Brian Byrne reported today in hisKilcullen Diaryblog that 74 more homes were seeking planning permission.

It is always important in a debate like this to detail the human story, what these families are facing and the pressure they are under in the town of Kilcullen. I want to provide some examples. One mother said her son was three months old. She was still on maternity leave, but she had not yet found a place for him for when she returned to work. She decided to take extra unpaid leave for an additional two months. After this time, she would either need to find a private childminder and see her husband reduce his work hours or for him to become a full-time carer and give up his career, as they were unable to afford a full-time childminder. They were on more than ten waiting lists and had to apply outside the county, too. Another mother said her baby was not born yet, but she already knew she would have to travel outside Kilcullen for childcare until a place opened up for their little one. It makes things much trickier for work and socially for their child, whom she wants to be with the kids she will be going to school with when she grows up. Another mother says she has a six-year-old son and is struggling to find an after-school place for him. Her partner has a full-time job and she had to quit her job to take care of their son due to the lack of after-school places for him.

I could go on and on. In total, we had 110 families experiencing childcare problems in this town. I have previously spoken with the Minister for children in relation to this problem, and she is aware of it. I have raised it at every opportunity I can and the community group continues to raise it with every public representative in the Kilcullen area. What we need to see is an intervention by the Government for public childcare places to relieve the problem. We cannot continue to build houses in the town of Kilcullen unless we have the childcare provided there. Another mother told me she was considering leaving the town because the only childcare she could get was some 70 miles away where she was actually born. She travels three days a week in order to avail of that childcare.

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