Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is a reasonable man and in my experience as a local representative I find the system is unsympathetic. Social workers involved in child protection are worn out from being both understaffed and under-resourced. No social worker is available after 5 p.m. or the weekend. While I accept the service has improved under the Minister of State's leadership, the system is still failing our young people. Victims of domestic violence find it difficult to have their concerns taken seriously by the system. That is an outrage. The Government and the Department needs to support families in crisis. People should not have to wait until they are in absolute crisis to go to social services. Early intervention is necessary.

One child, with a heart condition, in my area roams the streets at night, even as late as 11 p.m. in the pouring rain. His mother is inadequate and not able to cope. I have tried to contact social services about the case but there is no support for the mother because the services are understaffed and stretched.

We all saw the "Prime Time" programme showing stacks of files on social workers' desks. It is an outrage that the report containing the Health Service Executive's figures for 2006 for services for children in welfare was only published yesterday. How can the Minister of State put in place services for children who are suffering abuse and neglect when he does not know until two years later the figures for the number of children affected?

I understand the Minister of State is in a new portfolio and it is difficult, but at the same time, we are failing our most vulnerable members in society. As Senator Larry Butler said, they are also the most valuable, the largest asset to our society. It is every child's constitutional right to be protected and cared for.

I applaud the Minister of State for taking time out of his schedule to visit the Longford-Westmeath constituency as often as he has. We have fantastic capital projects with beautiful crèches, both private and community-based, which he has visited. I hate to be negative but through staffing and doing away with the subvention, as Senator Ivana Bacik stated, a two-tier system in child care has been created. Many parents cannot afford to send their children to private crèches because of the prohibitive costs. In turn, the staffing arrangements for the community crèches are under threat and they are not able to function. Many single mothers who want to work but cannot afford child care costs or get a subvention have done the sums and decided to stay languishing at home. This is an anomaly I know the Minister of State will address.

The issue of ghettoisation also arises in this debate. I attended school with children who were both well off and not so well off. One nurtures a society by having children who have different experiences of life socialise, play and educated together. Those who have and those who have not should not be in different crèches or play groups, which is what is happening because of the community child care subvention scheme. That is reported to me, both by parents and by the providers.

Mothers who have gone to university and who want to contribute to society find that when they have their second baby they cannot afford the cost of child care and opt out of the workplace. Society is at a loss that these intelligent women are not able to contribute in the workplace. It is lovely for the children — do not get me wrong — but it is a shame that their mothers do not have the choice to be able to work because of the prohibitive cost of child care.