Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I am particularly pleased this debate is taking place and that I have an opportunity to speak. It is six weeks since I first raised the matter on the Order of Business. I did so on a weekly basis until there was a groundswell of support for the debate now taking place. My party has been to the fore on the issue of child care funding. I have met child care providers. Sinn Féin's health spokesperson in the other House, Deputy Ó Caoláin, has also raised this issue. We believe the new system of funding community and voluntary child care facilities is causing grave concern in this sector. There are real fears that it will result in crèche closures, job losses, fee increases which will have to be borne by many parents and the development of a two-tier system. This scenario has arisen primarily due to a lack of consultation with those working at the coal face of child care provision.

Nobody disagrees with the stated intent of the new programme. It is about making child care more accessible for low-income families. Far too many families continue to be unable to access child care due to a lack of affordable places, with serious consequences for parents who wish to improve the lives of their families by working in part-time and full-time employment. Under the new scheme, community child care providers will receive a subvention to enable reduced fees to be charged to disadvantaged parents. Such parents must be in receipt of social welfare payments, however. Many families using community child care facilities earn low incomes but do not receive social welfare payments. Community crèches which do not have a sufficient number of welfare recipients on their books will be forced to close or to raise their fees for those who do not qualify for the subvention. Therefore, many low income families which are already trying to cope in straitened circumstances may be forced to pay more for child care. That would make a nonsense of the claim that the new scheme will be better for the disadvantaged.

There are genuine fears that the new scheme will lead to the creation of a distinction between welfare recipients and other service users. We could end up with a two-tier child care system, mirroring our two-tier health system. Sinn Féin is calling for the new scheme to be suspended pending an urgent review of it, including full consultation with people in the community and voluntary child care sectors. It would be shameful if an ill-thought-out scheme were to undermine this country's voluntary child care infrastructure, which has been built up from scratch over recent years. Sinn Féin favours the development of a comprehensive and universal system of child care.

It was interesting to listen to some of the arguments which were made by Government Senators. I had to pinch myself to make sure I was in the Upper House of the Oireachtas and not anywhere else. It was difficult to believe what was being said. This scheme is in place — it is not still at the discussion document stage. It is not still being promoted by civil servants — it is in place. The extent of this problem is not being exaggerated by people on the Opposition benches, or even by the 41 members of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party who raised it at a recent meeting of that body. This problem is being brought to the attention of politicians by those working in the child care sector and those sending their children to community child care facilities. These people are asking politicians to govern and to ensure there will be enough child care places for children on 1 July next.