David Norris (Independent)

I found the Minister's speech very interesting, particularly when he hinted he might sniff an election in the offing, a comment that other speakers have echoed. I am worried that the possibility of an election might lead to a Dutch auction. Child welfare and the well-being of children should be at the centre of the child care debate. I am afraid we might revert to the Victorian position — the poor people with their children at baby farms and the wealthy people with their children at governesses. Such people never got to see their children. There is a real problem in this regard. It is a complex issue. I accept that people should be supported, but throwing money at the problem is not the answer, as the Minister demonstrated when he drew an analogy with the increase in housing grants, which simply served to increase the price of houses.

I pity people whose lifestyles suffer because they have to commute to Dublin from places like Athlone and put their children into child care facilities for long periods of the day, having taken on heavy commitments such as mortgages. I do not think it is socially constructive that people have to live in such a manner. I am reminded of a story I heard in Cyprus a few weeks ago about a man who was living very happily and contentedly plying his trade as a shore fisherman. When he had a good catch one day, another gentleman came along the strand and said to him "I see you are a fisherman and you have had a very good catch, but you cannot continue to do that". When the fisherman asked why he could not do so, the man explained that he was an EU official and had to give the fisherman a grant to get a boat. When the fisherman asked what he would do with the boat, the man said he could hire other people and have a fleet of boats. When the fisherman asked what he would do with the fleet of boats, the man said he could retire. When the fisherman asked what he would do then, the man said he could go fishing. We are caught in a kind of catch-22 situation. The House should be aware of a series of reports, about which there is some dispute, which have suggested that too intensive an exposure to child care in the first three years of a child's life is damaging to him or her.