Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I am wary whenever history and social attitudes ask women to work. During the wars, women were needed to work in the munitions factories and elsewhere but as soon as the wars ended they were told to go back home. I would be wary of seeing women as economic ciphers with that purpose alone even though people are needed in the workforce. Senators Ross and O'Toole have two worthy motions on the Order Paper relating to this issue, including an excellent motion containing five points.

When I come to work in the morning, I constantly pass what I would describe as harassed mothers, infants and little children who are barely able to trot along while holding onto their mothers and looking perplexed. The mothers are pulling and the children are crying and out of sorts even though I am sure that, while I do not know anything about them, they are going to very good crèches. I do not know what time they woke up to go to crèches at 8 a.m. It must be very unsettling for mothers. It must also be unsettling for young people and babies who have been hauled out of cots and beds, washed, scrubbed and had their nappies changed, to be given little dinner baskets and sent off to crèches for the day.

I read about a major survey carried out by Ms Penelope Leach, the famous child guru, and reported in The Observer last weekend. I do not have a copy but have sent for one. Ms Leach has changed her mind on this issue approximately ten times over the course of her life, saying mothers should be outside the home, mothers should be inside the home and the same for fathers. Her latest opinion, to which I do not subscribe, is that babies do best when mothers are around. One may take this as a general principle because mothers will spoil infants and do their every bidding. However, I do not like how this practically heaps blame on mothers who have gone to work, which is not the full answer, although I accept that whoever conducts studies on what to do about child care understands that it is a highly complex issue. No job is as complex as parenting.