Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

—recognising the huge difficulties faced by working parents in securing child care for their children and meeting the huge costs that the Taoiseach has acknowledged can be as much as €800 per child per month;

—deploring the failure of the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that there are sufficient child care places available;

—expressing serious concern at the threat by the Government to withdraw staffing grant assistance under the equal opportunities child care programme currently provided to community-based/not for profit child care centres;

—calling for the withdrawal of this threat as without the grant aid huge increases in charges will be necessary and many centres may be forced to close; and

urges the Government to recognise the need for a child-centred and learning based system of child care and pre-school education that would respect parents' choices, while allowing them to manage better the demands of both work and home, and that would have as central features:

(i) the introduction of parental leave to provide more time for parents and children,

(ii) better financial support through a refundable tax credit,

(iii) one year's free pre-school education,

(iv) more places, including direct provision by the State, and

(v) more investment to ensure quality child care.

I welcome the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Michael McDowell, to the House to discuss this important motion. As the Minister will be aware, child care is emerging as a key issue in people's lives. It is not surprising that it has also emerged as a major issue on the doorsteps during the by-election campaigns in Meath and Kildare North.

Many young working couples are finding themselves under severe financial pressure due to the high cost of child care and the Government's failure to support working parents in alleviating such costs. In addition, the Government has failed to use investment in child care to tackle disadvantage effectively. Nonetheless, there is a great opportunity to do so, particularly via the equal opportunities child care programme, about which the Minister made an announcement last week.

The amendment to this motion sums up the Government's attitude to child care. It reveals starkly the Government's threadbare approach to the development and implementation of a meaningful child care policy that would reflect our economic prosperity and status, as well as our potential for economic growth. Such a policy would also put in place a network and infrastructural support system to enable every child to meet his or her potential.

The Government amendment refers to "the very significant increase in child benefit" and "the use of child benefit as the most equitable way of giving support to parents towards the cost of rearing and caring for their children, irrespective of the family's employment status". It is clear from this amendment that the Government sees child benefit as a mechanism to put money in parents' pockets which would go towards the cost of child care.

I am in receipt of child benefit which amounts to €131 per month but it does not pay for my weekly child care costs. It falls far short of them, in fact. Child benefit, however, should not be seen as a mechanism to pay for child care; it is to support parents in raising their children, whether or not those parents are at work.

The Minister is a parent himself and knows the high cost of raising children these days. The sum of €131 per month is welcome and one must acknowledge the increase in child benefit in recent years. However, when one takes from that sum the child costs, as opposed to child care costs, it leaves very little for child care. At the rate of €131 per month it cannot be argued that child benefit is an effective mechanism for meeting the cost of child care.

Only last week in the Dáil, the Taoiseach told the Labour Party leader, Deputy Rabbitte, that child care costs are very high. They can be as high as €800 per child per month, which is higher than the cost of many mortgages.

I have encountered this issue much more than I thought I would on the doorsteps in Kildare North, in particular. Currently, a spouse, usually the mother, leaves work because when child care costs are deducted it is not worth maintaining two jobs in a household, along with juggling the responsibilities of caring for small children. There are other issues concerning family-friendly work policies, including flexible working hours and parental leave, which can assist people as they struggle with their responsibilities both as workers and parents.

The Government is failing to bring forward a coherent child care policy. When we see what the rest of Europe is doing in the area of child care, it is evident that Ireland is hardly in the ha'penny place. The average cost of child care to Irish couples represents 20% of income, compared to a European average of 12%. In addition, we have one of the worst parental leave regimes in Europe, so it is laughable that the Government amendment should refer to "the provision of enhanced arrangements for parental leave".

A few weeks ago, this House passed a Bill that increased the parental leave provision so that one now has 14 weeks of unpaid parental leave until a child is eight years old. That is considered to be a major extension but is, in fact, minimal. During that debate, it was clear from the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, that the Government has no intention of further enhancing parental leave arrangements. Therefore, people who are considering having children in future should be aware that they are living in a country that has the least favourable unpaid parental leave arrangements in Europe. That is another pressure point for parents because raising children is an expensive option.

Last Friday, the Minister announced additional funding for the equal opportunities child care programme. While the programme is welcome, it is coming from a position of little or nothing. A considerable amount of public money is being spent on the programme but we must look at it in context. It is developing a child care network through the county child care committees which are doing excellent work but they are only just starting and the necessary financial provision is only beginning to emerge.

While capital grants are welcome, they are also essential. Last week, the Minister announced capital grant assistance of €800,000 for a facility at Upper Church, as well over €1 million for St. Sheelin's, Templemore. That is all very welcome but let us be clear that nothing would be happening if it were not for this capital grant assistance. While that assistance is excellent, the main issue concerns staffing grants. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response on this key issue.

I refer specifically to the departmental letter of November 2004 to child care facilities concerning the review of staffing grant assistance that is being carried out in the Department. I have spoken to people who are running child care facilities not only in my own area of north Tipperary but also in other regions, including areas of severe disadvantage in Dublin such as Tallaght. Such people tell me that if their staffing grant assistance is cut this year they simply will not be able to function. The Minister may be aware that in Tallaght a brand new facility is almost finished but the people who are due to move into it say the staffing grant is insufficient. They cannot manage the facility without a commitment to ongoing increased assistance. One must remember that many of these facilities operate with people on community employment schemes. They are dependent on such schemes to maintain a level of staffing adequate to meet the needs of the children in those facilities. I have no problem with this in principle. From my experience, excellent people have emerged through the training and opportunities they received through community employment schemes.

However, this is not good enough, with which point the Government's own centre for early education and development in Drumcondra will agree. It is not good enough to rely on community employment schemes to maintain high-quality staffing in these usually publicly-owned facilities. It would be a good add-on and give good opportunities to individuals in particular but it is not good enough that these facilities rely on community employment workers to continue in operation.

In the context of the equal opportunities child care programme, the staffing grant issue must be addressed. In particular, the areas of disadvantage must be given an assurance, which I ask the Minister to examine carefully, for ongoing committed funding, rather than having to rely on a hand-to-mouth existence and wonder what will be the position on 31 August next.

Roscrea 2000 is an excellent ADM-funded child care programme which supports parents in training and those in employment. However, if the staffing grant is removed, the organisation will not be able to subsidise such places, which are mostly allocated to lone parents and a number of people on low incomes. The Government must recognise the need for an ongoing commitment to funding in this regard. Otherwise, it points up a lack of commitment to using child care as a very effective way of tackling disadvantage. Evidence from the US and Britain shows that investment in pre-school education and early learning from infanthood, and supporting parents and poor families in particular through the provision of quality affordable child care in the community, is the most effective way of breaking the cycle of poverty, exclusion and disadvantage.

If the Government is really interested in doing this, it will be measured by the level of investment in these child care facilities. It cannot expect lone parents, poorly-paid families and people who are trying to get back to work to do so without support for their child care costs. Otherwise they will have no hope of breaking out of the cycle in which they are trapped. Our words mean nothing if we do not put our money where our mouths are. I look forward to the Minister's reply.