Shane Ross (Independent)

I thank the Government for giving us the chance to debate this very important issue. Members will have received a letter informing them about the Oireachtas crèche in the last day or two. I think everybody has received this letter. Whereas it is fairly short on detail, there are one or two very stark statistics therein. I suppose the one that is most telling and strikes all Members who look at it as most punishing is the cost of putting a child or baby into a crèche in the Oireachtas for a month. The figures quoted here are €728 per month for babies, €687 for toddlers and €630 for pre-Montessori pupils. These are 2005 prices, which will go up by 5% in 2006, which means they will be approximately €765 per month per child.

If one looks at these figures and examines them in the context of someone who works in this House, one will find that a staggering proportion of his or her income would be spent on crèches if he or she were inclined or forced to do so. We are talking about a payment for one child of possibly €9,000 per year and the figure is doubled to €18,000 after tax for someone with two children. The starting salaries of people in this House at the lower levels are approximately €21,000 or €22,000. Somebody who works in the Houses of the Oireachtas with two children and a salary of €22,000 who wishes to use the Oireachtas crèche on a full-time basis will be paying his or her entire income after tax and a few other payments on simply looking after his or her children.

These statistics are not economically unrealistic but they are socially unacceptable. It means that we are offering facilities in this House to people who patently will not be able to afford them. It is a bit of a nonsense that the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas is doing this. The crèche facilities we are offering will only be offered to the better off individuals who work here. I suppose it is a stark and telling example of what the rest of the nation must suffer. What it also tells us is that only the very well off can afford to pay for their children to get this pre-school education or care. It is quite staggering. I had lunch today with a woman who told me she had three children in crèches. This costs her €2,500 per month after tax, which amounts to €30,000 per year after tax. I presume this woman is a high earner. Presumably before tax, she must earn at least €50,000. A total of €50,000 of her income goes to seeing that her children are simply looked after, kept alive for the day and possibly cherished, nourished and cared for in a particularly laudable way. This state of affairs is absurd. We are now asking those we are welcoming into the workforce to create this great prosperity to hand over the bulk of it to see their children are kept safe on a daily basis. This is a benefit but it is one for which they are paying far too high a price.

Women who go to work have the choice to go to work, as do men. Many women do so due to economic necessity, many of them do it because they want to and many of them do it because they are extraordinarily well-educated, well-qualified and stimulating and would not flourish in the home environment without that sort of external stimulation.