Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I support the contributions of other speakers, in particular the point made by Senator Kett that the Minister should immediately make arrangements to raise the upper age limit concerning a handicapped child to 18. The Bill as it stands is thoughtless in this regard. The Senator noted that the hormonal changes in young people aged 16 to 18 are critical. This change would be important for parents of handicapped children and should be made without further debate or discussion. Senator Kett in his professional role deals with handicapped children and knows what he is talking about. I am glad he made his point.

Ireland is now the richest country in the world. It is pathetic we are not prepared to pay a contribution towards paid parental leave and amazing we cannot raise the required funding. It is the same old story. We are dragged, kicking and screaming, by European directives into making the payments that other countries, such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden, have made.

The Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, referred to child care. While I do not want to be personal and recognise that the Minister of State is a good politician, and I commend him for raising the matter of community employment schemes within the parliamentary party last year, his statement on child care does not provide the full picture. I wrote an article on child care for yesterday's edition of the new newspaper, Daily Ireland. In addition, I will be holding a public meeting on child care on 24 February in the Catherine McAuley centre on Baggot Street. It is the biggest issue facing the 18 to 42 year old age group at present.

Reference was made to the equal opportunities child care programme, which has led to a 33% increase in child care places in the South since 2000. However, the number of places is still woefully inadequate to cater for the needs of all communities and there is a shortage of child care places across the country.

The Government's use of child benefit as the only fiscal instrument to support child care is totally wrong and narrow minded, and will have to change. Child benefit for the first child is approximately €35 per week. With all due respect to the Minister of State, this is not enough if one is paying a minimum of €88 to €100 for a community, non-profit crèche, as well as food, clothing, etc. The former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, stated this was to be the method used. While Mr. McCreevy and the current Taoiseach were both first-class Ministers for Finance, in this case Mr. McCreevy was wrong to use child benefit as the only fiscal instrument supporting child care.

I recently discussed the issue of community, non-profit crèches with the Minister of State, including the lack of availability of places and cost. In the private sphere, to have two children in child care at €500 per child per month is the equivalent of a €260,000 mortgage. Therefore, two children at €500 per child per month is the equivalent of a couple having a second mortgage with no tax relief. That is the reality. Young married couples and single parents are under severe pressure given the shortage of child care places, the cost of providing non-profit community facilities, and the cost of expensive private care. Nobody is making a killing because the private sector cannot provide a service below cost. It is very expensive to provide a private child care place.

There should be a new Department for children and the family. Currently, 11 Departments deal with children and child care issues. I understand why it is under the aegis of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform but I think that is the wrong Department. We are living in a society where divorce is now available. In some cases, children of divorced families require counselling. My sister has a private counselling service. She told me that children from broken marriages are waiting for a year to receive child care counselling in the public sector. Just think about it — little children of seven or eight years of age whose parents are divorced, and who need counselling, are waiting for a year to get it. If one has the money one can buy such counselling but, if not, one must wait. It is thoughtless to oblige such children to wait so long for counselling services.

Society is changing and we must face facts: divorce is now available and many such cases will be acrimonious. In addition, Senator Norris and Senator O'Toole referred to same-sex couples. It will be a poor show if the people who are drawing up this legislation put their heads in the sand and refuse to wake up and see that society has changed.

The British Government has produced a vision for a ten-year child care strategy whose effects will be colossal. Schools will be open later so that pupils can attend them in the afternoon. When the British Labour Party Government introduces these proposals after the general election, which it looks as if it will win, people in Northern Ireland will have a pretty sophisticated child care service, while parents down here will be tortured by the costs involved.

It is always the poorest in our society who suffer most because parental leave is unpaid. In the past, only 20% of parents have availed of such leave because it is unpaid and, consequently, they cannot afford to stay off work. In addition, we need 30,000 economic immigrants to sustain the economy. The Lisbon agenda seeks a target of 60% of women participating in the workforce, whereas the figure is still approximately 56%.

As Senator Kett said, we have come a long way. In 1969, I had to give up my Civil Service job when I got married, so I know what discrimination is about. Ireland was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the modern era by EU directives. In 1973, an EU directive stated that women did not have to give up their jobs in the Civil Service when they got married. As Senator Kett said, his own wife was affected by those regulations. We should think about the talent that was lost to the Civil Service because such women had to give up their jobs. Younger people cannot imagine what it was like to have to give up one's job because of the Civil Service marriage bar. Women who got married were cut down and that was it. I remember my boss in the Board of Works tried to help me. I am sure some of the ladies in the Gallery, who are very welcome, had to give up their jobs when they got married.

The 20% figure for parental leave uptake is an indication that such unpaid leave is not good enough. It is good that parents can take the leave in blocks, so that it does not have to be taken for 14 weeks consecutively. It can, thus, be divided up by agreement with employers.

I support the points that were made earlier about staff being motivated but I wish to raise a small caveat, namely, not all employers have a perfect relationship with their staff. There should be some way of giving women senior management positions. Why have we got so few women directors on management boards? Why do men not appoint more women to boards? Are they afraid the women will be off on maternity leave or otherwise unavailable? A legal framework must be put in place whereby if a person takes time off work, either for paid maternity leave or unpaid parental leave, he or she will be guaranteed to keep his or her job. A watchdog body is needed to ensure that there is no discrimination and that such people will not lose out in terms of their future careers.

In making these remarks to the Minister of State, I am not being personal but I have to state the truth. After the Northern Ireland peace process, my number one issue is that of child care. I intend to pursue this matter until we obtain improvements in that regard. That is what Senators are here for. I ask the Minister of State to arrange for the measures to apply to 18 year olds and handicapped children.

I am not being personal. I know it may sound awful but I am just being honest with the Minister of State. There is no point in being otherwise. We are here to help change society and improve the quality of life for everybody. We are the richest country in the world so why can we not make a financial contribution? We want to lift more people into the middle classes, although I hate using that term. We want to get everybody up to a higher standard of living. That is the bottom line.