Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan. I have spent the last 18 months researching child care issues. During this time, I organised four public meetings in the Dublin South-East constituency and a conference in the Berkeley Court Hotel which was attended by the Minister of State at which he set forth his belief that this is an issue that must be addressed urgently by the Government. I visited crèches in the mornings and met hundreds of parents and crèche owners.

As a result of this research, I compiled a document entitled A New Approach to Child Care which most Members have seen. The Government must implement a bold and comprehensive plan for child care in the next two budgets. Piecemeal initiatives are insufficient. My document contains some nine propositions but I take this opportunity to focus on one particular aspect. I ask the Minister of State not to be offended when I observe that 95% of those who will draw up budget proposals on child care in coming years will be men. Many will be grandfathers who have never had to mind a child in their lives and are not familiar with the pressure of going to work to pay for a child or having to bring a child to a crèche. Men's DNA seems to dictate that it is a woman's responsibility to deal with the child care aspect of family life.

Article 41 of the Constitution concerns the family. It purports to be a family-friendly Constitution but we are not a family friendly country. The Proclamation following the insurrection of 1916 states we must cherish all our children equally but we do not. I speak from a social rather than an economic point of view. The State takes responsibility for the education of every child from the age of five, from national school through secondary education to free third level education. However, the gap begins the minute the child is born. The children of parents with money go to crèches. I have visited many crèches and witnessed the extraordinary intellectual stimulation and socialisation children learn from the age of six months. Research does not prove that the best education is received when a mother stays at home minding a child because some mothers are not suited to being at home all day every day. They are better off at work as they would otherwise be bored. A parent must have the choice to stay at home or go to work.

Every child born in the State should get an equal chance. When I visited private crèches I told the parents they were lucky they could afford a crèche. Some parents cannot even afford to send their children to a community crèche so they get no pre-school education. The parents cannot study themselves because no crèche is available where they live. A child born to an economically deprived family does not get a fair chance and the Constitution of 1937 is not family friendly in 2005.

During my research I came across the case of Jessica Starmer who was a British Airways pilot. She had just had a baby and wanted stay at home for two years but was told that as she was a pilot she was different and had to come back to work. In April 2003 the UK brought in legislation called flexible working which allowed an employee, man or woman, with a child under six or a disabled child under 18 to negotiate flexible working hours with his or her employer. That could involve working a shorter day, fewer annual hours, or taking two years leave. The employer has a statutory responsibility to negotiate. I have been an employee and an employer and it is the way of the future from both points of view. Naturally, such conditions cannot apply to some professions, such as doctors, nurses and teachers but with 21st century technology such as broadband and conference calls there is no need for many people to be in the workplace from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Before the industrial revolution people worked in their homes and women contributed as much as men, for example in artisan industries.

We need a Bill for flexible working arrangements. This week I brought a Bill in draft form, proposition no. 3 in this document, to my fellow Senators Kitt and Dooley and other Fianna Fáil colleagues and they unanimously supported it. I am waiting for a response from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, to whom I gave the draft Bill last night. I jumped the gun as I should have given it to him earlier but I am an entrepreneur and have to get going when a job is to be done. We in Fianna Fáil aim to be visionaries for the parents of the country by introducing a Private Members' Bill in the Seanad to allow the negotiation of shorter working days.

There are many jobs where, if a parent has to take a child home at 3.30 p.m., they are not allowed to remain at home. Everybody in the House knows that many employees do not have to be in their job from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and after-school care is costly. The benefits to an employer of flexible working include loyalty from staff, high morale and motivation and less absenteeism. This is a 21st century Bill in the new electronic age. It is necessary to deal with child care as a package. I want Ireland to be a family-friendly country where every child has an equal chance. Senator Terry, with whom I have been discussing this matter for a year and a half, is on the same wavelength as me.

The Progressive Democrats propose introducing tax relief for people minding children at home. I have not heard anything as ridiculous in my life as the suggestion that we should open up that hornets' nest. The complications attached to it are so obvious I do not need to spell them out.

I said when we were in Cavan that Fianna Fáil can be as visionary as Donogh O'Malley in 1967 when he introduced free secondary school education. The issue is work-life balance.