Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

There should be much more debate on parenting. Young families should be told that there is a 30 or 40-year lifespan in the workplace, and children growing up will take up perhaps ten years of this. Both parents and children will eventually be grateful if more of the parents' time is given to the child's early development, but the Government must support them in doing so. We should support the parents by giving them the choice in the first year to stay at home and by changing work practices, as Senator White has suggested.

We should address the balance between work and life. I cannot understand how families survive when a child is put into a crèche in Navan at the early stages of the morning with, for example, parents going to work in Dublin and arriving back at 7 o'clock in the evening to collect the child. That is not right. If that is the type of society we have developed, it is not a good society. Children should be put first, and both children and their parents should be facilitated in order to ensure proper development at least until the stage of entering school. More time will be available to parents at that stage. Much more debate is needed on this issue.

I welcome Senator White's Bill and admire the work she is doing. I am not casting aspersions on her proposal, but the Government Bill should be brought forward. That is what is required.