John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I agree with my colleague Senator Terry and support the Labour Party motion. A notion has crept into the debate that all couples where both partners are working do so voluntarily. This bears no resemblance to the truth. Many people with young children are forced to work because they have to pay huge mortgages. From time to time, the Government tries to wash its hands of the problem by saying that their decision to work is voluntary. However, this is not a voluntary decision for most families with young children and the Government should face up to that.

I am sure all Senators could outline different examples in their own constituencies of voluntary groups that have not received or are having difficulty receiving funding from the Department regarding the establishment of child care facilities. I can cite an example from Kells, a village which has undergone extensive development in the past few years, in my constituency in Kilkenny. A local voluntary committee in the village has raised €60,000 or €70,000 locally to establish a community resource centre, the main plank of which is to be a child care facility. In the past two or three years, all of the committee's applications for funding from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for that child care facility have been refused. Yet before the end of 2004, it received a grant of €10,000 from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to provide kitchen and other facilities in the new building when it is built. That money will have to be handed back in June 2005 because, yet again, the committee has failed in its attempt to get funding for the child care aspect of the resource centre. That example could be replicated in most parts of the country. We all know of community groups like the one I have cited. These people come together voluntarily, give their time and see their efforts strangled mainly by an over-bureaucratic approach by the Department. Certainly, decisions are not properly explained. In many places, these groups end up dissolving in failure because of the obstacles they face. The attitude the Government has adopted here tonight is one that does not bear any resemblance to the situation on the ground. I would urge that a new approach be adopted by the Government.