Tony Kett (Fianna Fail)

The Minister took up the point that we were coming from nothing and it reminded me of someone stopping to ask another person for instructions and that person saying to him or her "Well, I wouldn't start from here". It is necessary to start somewhere when dealing with something as important as this issue. This debate at least gives us the opportunity to congratulate the Minister on the additional €32.5 million he announced would be provided in child care grants since we last spoke on the issue. That announcement gives effect to the commitment given by the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Frank Fahey. We are also to have an increase of 2,500 places, which brings the total to 36,500. The equal opportunities child care programme committed itself to having 28,000 places by 2006. We have surpassed that figure and, as the Minister said, more than 21,000 of those were in place by 2004. While this may be the result of the equal opportunities child care programme, it was a programme that was agreed by both the Government and Europe. Even since the programme's inception, we have increased our commitment from €318 million to approximately €500 million and that will continue to the end of 2006. The Minister also stated before and again this evening that he intends to continue to support this endeavour after the current envelope of money runs out. I welcome his commitment.

There has been massive social and economic change in Ireland in the past 30 years. It was only in the mid-1970s that women began to remain in the workforce after marriage. The majority of them would have left the workforce after the birth of their first child. Only those women who were fortunate enough to have family members or neighbours to mind their children could remain in the workplace in those days. As the Minister said, we need to put in place a pre-education network where children are stimulated prior to going to school rather than dumped in day care. Children need stimulation in some kind of preschool setting. One speaker said that it is estimated that up to 220,000 children need pre-school education at any given time. We know now that more women are going back to work for a variety of reasons — training, education, etc.— which is also bringing about increased demand in this area. It is incumbent on us to make it possible for these women and these families to have choices because they women have contributed in no small way to the current economic situation. We all want these women to be able to continue in work so that the economy can continue to flourish.