Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann congratulates the Government on the child care package set out in budget 2006;

—welcomes especially the new five-year child care investment programme which will support the creation of an extra 50,000 child care places;

—maintains that the new early child care supplement of €250 per quarter for every child up to the age of six will assist parents further with the cost of caring for their children during those years when expenses tend to be at their highest;

—notes that the early child care supplement, taken together with the increases in child benefit, which budget 2006 increases to €150 per month, brings the amount a family will receive for each of the first two children to €2,800 per year;

—supports the policy of an intensification of training arrangements to support quality child care delivery and notes that it is expected that 17,000 child care workers will be trained by 2010; and

—commends the further extension in maternity leave which will enable mothers of newborn children from 2007 to take six full months of paid maternity leave.

As Government spokesman on health and children I am particularly pleased to speak on this innovative approach in response to an issue which demanded attention. I am delighted it has been addressed. I acknowledge the long-standing commitment of Senator White and others on this issue.

This strategy will cover both current and capital spending, costing a cumulative €2.65 billion over the five years 2006 to 2010. Funding for the national child care strategy will be allocated in the Revised Estimates. From April 2006 a new early child care supplement worth €1,000 per year is being introduced for all children under six years. In effect, the supplement will end on their sixth birthday. The supplement will take the form of a direct, non-taxable payment of €250 in respect of each eligible child. Payments will be made every three months, that is, in each quarter. The first early child care supplement payment, covering the second quarter of 2006, will be made in mid-2006.

This will provide a major boost to families with young children. It will greatly alleviate the financial burden that many working families face in meeting rising child care costs, while recognising and rewarding stay-at-home parents. It is significant that in the budget, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, has given due recognition to stay-at-home parents. It is unfair to say that such people do not work when they are at home with children. Parents who work in the home are gainfully employed in so far as I am concerned.

A tax-free allowance of €10,000 has been introduced for those who mind children in their own homes. This is an initiative that has been long awaited and I am delighted the Minister has taken this step. Almost 80% of families paying for child care rely on informal arrangements. This will bring the many experienced and dedicated friends and neighbours performing this function into the tax net. Moreover, it recognises the vital role they play in our community.

Child benefit has also risen by €10 a month. From April 2006, monthly child benefit rates will increase to €150 for each of the first two children and €185 for each subsequent child. Child benefit has risen by 300% since Fianna Fáil came into Government with the Progressive Democrats in 1997. The greatest asset any country has is its people. Our children are the future leaders of the country and will be the bedrock of society. This package is of great importance for that reason. It is not today or yesterday that the need arose for a child care package. The need existed for some time. The Government has recognised that and has taken proactive measures to address it.

This historic child care package provides both children and parents with choice and support. Budget 2006 proposes an increase in funding for child care training services to train more than 17,000 qualified child care workers from 2005 to 2010. A new multi-annual investment programme is being introduced with the aim of funding 50,000 additional child care places by 2010. This will be over and above the 41,000 places provided under the existing equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP. A total of 26,000 places have already been created since the start of the EOCP and a further 15,000 places are due to come on stream before it ends in 2007.

The new national child care investment programme will consist of Government funding with grant aid available to both private and community providers for the building or expansion of child care facilities; and an ongoing current funding system to assist with the staffing and other operating costs in those community facilities that cannot meet the costs from fee income alone and to underpin further development of the role of city and county child care committees. This is an important measure, one which will bear fruit in the near future.

The amount of paid maternity leave from employment will increase from 18 weeks to 22 weeks from 1 March 2006. In addition, employees will also be entitled to take an additional four weeks unpaid maternity leave from the same date. In other words, from that date, one can avail of an additional 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave, after paid maternity leave ends. From March 2007, employees will be entitled to 26 weeks paid maternity leave, together with an additional 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave. The rise in housing costs in recent years necessitated both parents going out to work to pay the mortgage and, accordingly, this measure will be of great assistance to them. My wife always worked in the home even though she was a trained nurse. That was our decision and I am glad we took it. This important measure assists the people who cannot avail of that option in getting over a difficult period, especially if there are childbirth or postnatal difficulties. The rate of maternity benefit is set to increase to 80% of reckonable weekly earnings with a minimum weekly rate of €182.60. Previously, maternity benefit was based at 75% of one's weekly earnings.

We have heard inside and outside this Chamber of the large demand for child care and rightly so. Since 1997, the number of working women has risen by nearly 45% to 810,000. The majority of mothers now go out to work. I have given one of the reasons and there are several more, a main one being the increase's importance in light of the marriage bar some years ago. It was an outrageous insult to women and debarred society from availing of a tremendous level of expertise. I welcome its reversal.

The participation rate of mothers at work is lower among lone parents, who comprise 20% of all families with school-going children. Ireland has one of the lowest rates of lone parent labour market activity at 45%. This is an area that must be focused on and improved. I exhort the Minister of State to take it up as a matter of urgency. I know he will.

The number of births has also increased. The number of children of four years of age or under is expected to increase by 11% in the next ten years. It has been said ad nauseam that, with the drop in Irish childbirth rates and longevity on the increase, we will become an ageing population. This statistic will hopefully reverse that belief.

We have introduced the largest increase in child benefit in the history of the State. Since coming into Government in 1997, monthly rates have increased by €93.51 at the lower rate and €115.78 at the higher rate, increases of 246% and 234%, respectively, compared with inflation of 26.9%. Child benefit is a contribution towards the costs of raising children, regardless of a household's income or employment status. It does not distort parental choice about labour force participation and contributes towards alleviating child poverty. If it serves to do the latter alone, it is doing a good job.

The Book of Estimates has provided an extra €18.8 million for the EOCP in 2006. The total spend will be €102.308 million compared with €83 million last year, a substantial increase of over 20%. Since 2000, over €458 million has been approved under this programme, which led to the creation of 26,000 places by June 2005 and funding, when fully spent, is expected to lead to the provision of an additional 39,000 child care places.

As of June 2005, over 1,700 facilities are receiving funding under this programme. Over one third of its expenditure is in RAPID and CLÁR areas, in which 8,100 new child care places have subsequently been created. Overall, there is a total of over 82,000 child care places compared with 57,000 in 2001. One does not need to be a rocket scientist or mathematician of any great standing to recognise that this is a significant increase.