Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I wish to return to the crisis in child care and read to Members some comments sent to me by e-mail. My correspondent wrote:

Dear Senator Fitzgerald, today the Government made the decision for me that I shall only have one child. Up to now I had been trying to hold my ground against the grinding increases in all of life's necessities but finally my husband and I must admit defeat. The Government has introduced the community child care subvention scheme. This will affect the crèche our daughter attends.

She goes on to say that up to now, she thought she could muddle along. She adds:

This morning, it seems, the Government has won. This is one final increase that we can't overcome so I can only have one child. I thought this was a decision I would make for myself. I won't attempt to express how this makes me feel. Sometimes there aren't words to convey how helpless this country's voters feel.

That e-mail illustrates far better than I could how dramatic the changes proposed by the Government to the child care subvention scheme are. There is a crisis in child care. In my constituency in Clondalkin 400 child care places and 40 jobs are under threat because of the changes to the way child care is funded. I ask the Leader to ensure the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for children, Deputy Brendan Smith, comes to the House as soon as possible to discuss the situation.

The Government must change the rules and regulations it has introduced for the funding of child care. The new rules mean there will be segregation, child care places will be more expensive and community child care schemes that dozens of volunteers have spent the last seven years building up will be destroyed. I support Senator Mary White and others who argued yesterday that we need an urgent debate on child care. The new regulations must be changed and perhaps the Leader would explain to the Government the seriousness of this issue. We urgently need a debate on child care in this House to bring home to the Government the seriousness of the situation for child care providers and parents. The e-mail I received illustrates the dramatic effect these changes will have on families.