Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is again welcome to the House for this important debate. It is of great concern to many of us and we have managed to debate it while discussing other Bills in this House because of its importance to women. As the Minister of State can see, only female Members are in the House, despite fathers being parents with responsibilities as well. In this House, it always appears to be the women who speak on family issues. It is a pity we do not see more men, but I expect some men may speak on this issue during the course of this afternoon's debate.

By and large I welcome and support the work being done under the equal opportunities child care programme. While we are playing catch-up in the area of child care, at the same time one must welcome the work being done under the programme. That work and funding have resulted in more community child care places being made available. There are also more trained personnel and children from disadvantaged areas in particular are benefiting. I welcome and commend the work being done by the various county child care committees. The couple of disadvantages I have to highlight include the fact that funding will run out. I ask that it be continued after the National Development Plan 2000-06. Perhaps the Minister of State in his reply might address what will happen when the funding runs out. Even the current programme needs additional funding and I would like to see that happening.

We are playing catch-up as regards the provision of child care. Irish society is completely different from what it was 30 years ago. In 1971 there were far fewer women in the workplace. Today, the increase in the percentage of women working is 140%. That is an enormous change in our society and the stresses and strains it puts on families is evident every day. We hear more and more about this from families who are under stress. They are demanding the implementation of more family-friendly policies in every area of life. While the Government is responding, it is doing so slowly. We need to see greater and faster change in this regard. OECD studies show that Irish women's participation in the workplace is at the EU average of 56%.

We are going to see some changes and I want to quote from a press release issued by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions which asserts that child care costs and availability will drive women from the workplace. It is headed,"Working families burdened with equivalent of second mortgage", and states:

Childcare costs and availability risk driving women from the workplace unless there is immediate action. For too many working families the monthly cost of childcare is almost the equivalent of a second mortgage.

Many younger working families find that burden very very difficult to deal with and it has led to one or other partner giving up work, or cutting back on working hours in order to reduce the childcare bill. Most often, it is the woman who will make that sacrifice. In addition, many working families cannot access childcare facilities in their locality.

A recent survey found that almost two-thirds of crèches had waiting lists at the end of 2003. This has huge implications for employment equality, the role of women and indeed, continued economic growth. After all, a key factor in driving recent growth has been the increased number of women in the workforce.

Congress also cited ESRI figures from 2003 that showed a 2.5% drop in female workers aged between 20 and 24, as well as a 1.6% drop in female workers aged between 25 and 34. This the first time such a drop has been seen in a decade. Congress went on to state that it believed such worrying figures reveal that women are being forced to choose to stay at home because child care costs are so prohibitive. It will be a sad day for women if they have to give up their jobs because they cannot afford child care costs.

Many families with one child will struggle to meet those costs along with their mortgage or rent costs. When a second child comes, it is really crunch time for many families. Couples feel restricted in the number of children they can afford to have and that is a pity. If we look to some of the countries in Europe, where they have found that couples are having only one child, incentives are now being put in place to make it easier for parents, usually the mother, to stay at home for a number of years. While they may have an ulterior motive, which is to encourage them to have more children due to the drop in population and concern about the provision of pensions in the future, it is also for the good of the child. That could also happen here in a few years time. The principal reason must be to support the child and to ensure that he or she has a good upbringing.

When we talk about child care to enable parents to go to work, we must also remember that early education is a beneficial provision for a young child. We know that children benefit from early education. It is not right to target people from disadvantaged areas, but they are usually in the lower socio-economic division and children from those areas will benefit greatly from early education. I would like to see much more being done to make it more available and accessible to parents from disadvantaged areas.

I suggest that we take a broader view and look at our infrastructure. When we build schools and community centres in developing areas, we should not just look at the provision of primary and secondary schools. We should take an holistic view of the entire life cycle of the community and look at the provision of facilities for pre-school children as well as after-school provisions for older children. Such facilities should be built into complexes. We should think about how working parents have to plan their day, where they take the young child to a crèche and the older child to school, often in different directions. If we look at how we plan our infrastructure, it would be of great benefit to families. We should provide early education locally in a complex that deals with all types of education for children.

A number of private child care providers have pointed out to me that they have to pay rates on their buildings. I have also been contacted by families who used these private crèches because the cost of the rates is enormous. It is very difficult for child care providers to make a profit and the cost of those rates are being passed on to parents. Child care facilities should be treated in the same way as schools. The private sector is providing a great facility and service and we need more private sector crèches. Making them affordable is what they are trying to achieve. If they could be excluded from rates, it would help in keeping the costs down. We would be doing a service to providers and to parents, who are the users of the child care facilities.

This is one the biggest issues facing families today and if we do not address it, we will lose women from the workforce. These are women who are well educated and who have a contribution to make to our economy. They have already made a contribution to the economic growth in this country. If parents have to leave work because of child care costs, that is a loss to our economy. It is very hard to regain that loss, as these women come from a skilled base of acquired knowledge. Women are slow to give up their jobs. They know that by taking many years out of work, it is hard to get back into the workforce again. We do not make it easy for them.

Last week we debated the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004 and I remind the Minister that this Bill does nothing to help parents during their working lives. This is particularly the case for parents on low income as they cannot afford to take unpaid parental leave. I ask the Minister to look at this issue again and to introduce paid parental leave. We need flexible work friendly practices so that women can participate in the workforce and are not excluded. Lone parents feel most excluded from the workforce because they find it so difficult to meet their rent or mortgage costs on one salary, as well as trying to pay for child care. It is almost impossible for them to do so, yet they are criticised for staying at home. A stay at home mother makes a great contribution to society. I applaud women and couples who take the decision to stay at home unpaid. The contribution they are making to society goes unrecognised.

When a number of parents were surveyed in 2002, 62% of mothers and 86% of fathers in Ireland stated that they would like to spend more time with their family. While one in six of the population is in part-time work, over 70% of such workers are women. Much of that would be down to the provision of child care. I welcome what the equal opportunities child care programme is doing.

Despite the fact that we are playing catch-up, there is no guarantee that funding for the programme will continue to be provided. While some women are at risk of being driven out of the workforce, others do not get the recognition they deserve for staying at home to look after their children.