Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I wish to share my time with Senator Feargal Quinn. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the opportunity to debate this important issue.

I wish to take up a theme rightly addressed by Senator Fitzgerald on the universal provision of child care services. Before doing that, however, I wish to say how delighted I was to hear what Senator Mary White had to say. She has spoken sensibly about the need to invest in early childhood education, with which we all would agree fully. It is just a pity that the Government, which has been in power for more than 11 years, has not been listening to what Senator White has had to say on the issue. Clearly, money should have been invested in preschool education, at a minimum. This debate is not only about preschool education but also child care from an earlier stage in a child's or baby's life. None the less, in terms of preschool education, the cost of rolling out a one-year, universal programme of preschool education for all preschool children, that is, children aged three and four, would not have been immense. While I acknowledge the considerable sum of money that has been spent on various programmes, as outlined by the Minister of State, would the cost have been that much greater — certainly the benefits would have been immensely greater — had we invested in a more comprehensive programme of preschool education?

Buried within the text of the Minister of State's speech is the economic context in which we are operating, where cutbacks and closures are a feature of life. In that context, the Minister of State referred to the early childhood education centre and the expertise built up there. Unfortunately, as I understand it, the Government is closing that centre. It is most unfortunate that we are seeing cuts in a programme that has never really achieved its full potential.

There have been attacks in this budget on the idea of universal provision generally, and especially on the universal provision of medical cards for those over 70. There was also a very sinister suggestion in the budget speech by the Minister for Finance last week that universal child benefit will be the next benefit to be targeted and means tested. I wish to address this matter briefly before returning to the broader issue of child care provision.

Attacks on universal provision have a superficial attraction. We have heard numerous Ministers asking why millionaires' children should have free fees or millionaires over 70 be given medical cards. It is for the same reason that millionaires' children have free access to primary education, which no one is challenging. That is uncontroversial and we all would accept the enormous benefit to society in having universal access to primary education at a national level. That is a principle to which we have long adhered in this State.

This point was expressed eloquently by Ms Maev-Ann Wren, a recognised expert on health care, when she wrote in The Sunday Tribune, that: "Of course people on higher incomes should pay more for public services but the European way to achieve that is via tax or social insurance, so that we collectively fund services according to our ability to pay but, crucially, access them equally according to need." An enormous public good is served if we allow that.

That is the basis on which we pay for and fund our primary education system, so that millionaires' children and the children of those on social welfare all attend the same national school. That should also be the basis upon which we provide preschool education. This is not a controversial view. Segregation is not good for children or society. Unfortunately, we do not adhere to that model in our health care because we have a two-tier health service. Through the changes that have been made to the community child care subvention scheme, we are unfortunately seeing greater segregation creeping in to what was a very positive model of having child care available to children in a particular community on a subsidised basis, so that children of both working parents and parents on social welfare equally could access that child care. However, changes to the scheme have meant that children with working parents are being priced out of the community child care sector and a creeping segregation is emerging. Soon, community child care centres will only cater for children of parents on social welfare, which is most unfortunate. It is regrettable to see that sort of segregation at such an early age.

If we all accept the principle of universality at primary level, we should also accept it preschool level and earlier. Clearly, there is a need to provide child care as increasingly, both parents of children are working and there are also increasing numbers of single parent families. It is important that parents have a choice of working outside the home that is not solely based on financial considerations. The current system of child care and preschool provision, which is almost entirely left to individual parents and the private sector, means that most people are trying to juggle with enormous private costs, which can be €1,000 or €1,200 per child per month in the greater Dublin area. The Government has not seen fit to try to address this difficulty for parents of all income levels. There should be equal access to quality child care and preschool education.

Unfortunately we are seeing enormous encroachments on the rights of preschool children. There are attacks on children's rights through the effectively abandoned referendum promised on children's rights. Will the Minister of State clarify the matter? I have heard from public pronouncements and from other quarters that the referendum will not proceed. There has not been a clear announcement to that effect, but many of us understand it will not now proceed, which is a great shame. Part of the reason we have fallen so far behind other EU countries, as other speakers stated, is that we do not really recognise the idea of children's rights or give the idea any teeth in Ireland. We have been criticised internationally for our failure to provide at a constitutional level for children's rights.

The potential abandonment of the children's rights referendum, the signal that there could be an end to the payment of the universal child benefit and the swingeing attacks made on the education budget, admittedly the preserve of the Minister for Education and Science, clearly will affect young children and seem to be especially directed at the most disadvantaged, including Traveller children and children with special needs. Given these developments, it is time to say clearly that the Government has fallen down badly. I do not place all the blame with the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, but the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for children has failed in protecting preschool and older children. Brian's botched budget will be remembered for hurting not only the old, sick and handicapped, to use the Fianna Fáil slogan from many years ago, but also the young, poor and disadvantaged and it will certainly hurt children.