Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The Minister made a number of assertions which must be challenged. We can all see the benefits of high levels of child benefit, and those of us in Opposition saw them on the doorsteps during the general election. Child benefit is paid for all children until they are 18 years old, and 21 years old if they go to college. Paying child benefit for my two college-going under-21s is not much of a solution to the problem of young couples with two, three or four year old children who must pay out €300, €400 or €500 per week to have somebody look after them while they go to work. One can work out, on the back of a stamp, that it will cost approximately €1.5 billion to provide full-time child care for the 200,000 or 300,000 children under the age of four in this country. I will happily accept a correction of the figure, it might be 200,000 or 500,000.

We are paying as much again in child benefit and this money must be found through deductions from income tax, which I do not greatly like. I agree with Senator Mansergh that it would exclude those who most need support. To provide child care for children from the age of 6 months until they go to primary school will cost in the region of €1 billion and €2 billion every year.

There is no cheap route and if we continue attacking it at the margins we will not solve the problem. I want to be political about this issue. Ultimately, we will get the equivalent of the 200,000 medical cards in 2002 and a promise before the election which, six months later, we will discover we cannot afford. People will not be fooled a second time.