David Norris (Independent)

I compliment Senator White on the work she has done. I do not have a problem with means testing so long as the bar is set high enough. A lady spoke on the radio today who has two autistic children. When her husband got promotion all her supports were taken away. She argued her case. Eventually her supports were reduced from €180 to €36. That is not support. The point made on the Government side that we are no longer quite as family supportive as a country as we think is well made.

I wish to refer to the OECD report. It makes the point that early childhood education is a vital foundation in terms of physical development, brain growth, motor skills, language, intelligence, personality formation and so on. This is the key point. It also makes another significant point that the section of society that benefits most from this intervention is the poorest. Yet that is the area of least take up because of less support and less assistance.

The female drop-out rate from the employment system after the birth of a first or second child is high. A point was made earlier about the unaffordability for many of the crèche in Leinster House. The OECD report points out that typically, a second earner in a couple family with two young children in care with earnings of two-thirds of average salary has no net return from work after child care costs. That is mad. It shows Senator White is correct when she says we have to do something really imaginative. We have also an unfortunate situation in Ireland where we have the ambition of giving women the choice of going out into the work place. The ideal is to have the two parents in the home. My father died when I was six. My mother brought me up and did a pretty good job. Certainly my childhood was enjoyable. It was difficult for her. The ideal is that two parents would bring up the child equally but that is not the real world.

In Ireland only 45% of lone mothers are in employment whereas the rate is 81% in Austria, 76% in France and 84% in Japan. Here again we are at the bottom of the table. The Cathaoirleach has indicated I do not have much time. The OECD report includes in this the Barcelona objectives and spells them out clearly and how they should be reached and what needs to be done. It is along the lines of what Senator White has suggested. The section of society who would benefit most are the poorest and most vulnerable.