Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to contribute to this debate. It is good that the issue of child care, which we have debated on many occasions in the past, is being debated again in the Seanad.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The first aspect I welcome is having one person in charge of child care and children, and the upgrading of the position to Minister for children. This will address some of the concerns people had at different times that there was no joined-up thinking in this regard.

As Senators will be aware, I have had many difficulties in recent months in regard to the issue of child care and what I saw as a lack of attention and radical initiatives in the area. I welcome the initiatives being put in place by the Minister, Deputy Cowen. They are a move in the right direction, which I would like to acknowledge.

I wish to focus on a number of issues that have not been addressed so far. The first aspect to which Senator O'Meara referred is working parents. If one carried out a survey of mothers and fathers, particularly mothers, one would find that what they would like most is more time with their children. They would like to be able to get home to do the homework with their children and to attend school plays. They would like not to be under constant pressure. Parents would like to be able to provide a house, car and so on for their children so that they can have the best education, avail of the best after-school facilities and learn music, art, drama and so on. People accept that two parents may need to work because parents, including mothers, are entitled to a career.

The Government must put in place the kind of structures that facilitate this way of life, which may be for a limited period. My children range in age from six to 11. I have missed a lot of time with them because I have not been at home to help them with their homework. Fathers and others might think that I am lucky. It is awful not to know what one's children are doing in school. It breaks one's heart. All parents want is time, which must be examined.

I plead with the Minister of State to introduce job-sharing and flexible working hours. Even though he might say there is job-sharing, he should visit small and medium sized businesses in the private sector which have huge problems in this regard. I run a business and we had to introduce initiatives in this area. Were it not for the fact that I understand how these women feel, as a small business, we would not have decided to accept that cost. It is very difficult to run a business with job-sharing and flexible working hours, particularly if one is involved in the service industry and is trying to support services from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. How does one deal with the additional cost of employing and training people and managing two or three people who are doing the one job?

Supports should be made available to organisations on a daily and weekly basis. I pleaded with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, when he was in this House. Obviously he was not interested in what I had to say. He was too upset that I was frank with him. Some of the money being put into child care places should be put into a pilot scheme. The Government should say to small organisations that it will provide a grant if they introduce initiatives that would make life better for parents working in the organisation by allowing them to job-share. Businesses should be given grants to train two people to do the one job or to provide for flexible working hours and so on. They should be given grants to put in broadband and to put a computer in homes which would allow parents not to have to come to work until 10 a.m. and to be able to leave again at 3 p.m. This works very well in America where it is called "moms' hours", "dads' hours" or "parents' hours".

Something must be done about the women and men whose employers cannot allow them the flexibility and freedom which exists for workers in the public sector. The officials in the Minister of State's Department have access to three-day and four-day weeks because they can take parental leave on one or two days a week. Small business cannot afford this. It is not the way things are in the real world. We must create an environment in the real world whereby the Government will support businesses which contribute to the economy, paying their taxes, PAYE and PRSI to provide flexible working hours for the men and women who work for them.

We can no longer ignore the need for paid parental leave. I welcome the extended maternity leave, which makes a significant difference to mothers. For a mother not to have to return to work until her baby is seven or eight months old makes a huge difference. They have finishedbreast-feeding, seen their child's first teeth cut and are getting into a sleeping pattern. It makes a huge difference if the baby is old enough and sturdy enough to go into a crèche or to someone else's house to be looked after. It gets rid of the guilt feeling of which we are all aware. I am sure fathers suffer from it just as much as mothers.

Parental leave should be provided for parents who are working, which would be easy if one were earning lots of money. It would be easy for me to take parental leave. I would not even notice the drop in income because I would be saving 40% of my tax and I would have fewer expenses. However, low paid workers and families on the average industrial wage of €30,000 or €40,000 a year, cannot afford parental leave. In this respect, mothers and fathers lose out but, most important, the children lose out.

If we leave any legacy in this House, it should be as follows. First, all of the parties should get together and instead of using it as a political football, we should strive for all-party consensus on the issue. We all have great ideas. We all want to make a better world for children, therefore, let us go into the next election and not fight each other on our child care policy. We should have a common acceptable ground that will make sense and make a difference. There should be all-party consensus on this issue. We had it previously in regard to certain referendums and this proposal is even more important than referendums.

We need to be united in our approach to this issue. We should not fight over it, take pot shots at each other or say one party is better than another parties in its approach. None of us is better than any other; we are parents and adults and at some stage or in some way we will all be involved in Government. I would like us to be united in our approach to this issue.

My message to the Minister of State is that I welcome that his position has been upgraded and that he has been made more powerful in the Cabinet. It is a marvellous step forward. I also welcome the child care measures introduced in the budget. If as a result of those we have to pay €1,000 to the children of parents from Poland or any of the other EU member states who are working here, that does not matter. The issue is about children. I ask my colleagues in the House not to make this issue a political football. My children are too precious to me and I know other Members' children are too precious to them to do that. We should strive for all-party consensus on this issue. If we are united on this issue when we go to the electorate, it can decide on all our other policies, but child care is too important an issue on which to divide the country.