Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I, too, welcome the Minister to this House for this important debate. I glad to have an opportunity to make a contribution as a parent myself and on behalf of many parents of my generation, and younger, who are now faced with huge challenges in the present economic climate, not only to remain sustainable in their own family lives, but also to give their children an upbringing as good as, if not better, than we received from our parents.

When discussing child care, we must acknowledge the role of grandparents. There is not one family in Ireland who has not utilised or sought the help of grandparents when parents are working. The grannies and granddads of the country have stepped into the breach, often after rearing large families of their own, and have helped to raise their grandchildren. They have set an example for many of us now rearing our children.

Prior to the introduction of community child care schemes, and fancy crèches and Montessori schools, there were many individual childminders in communities all over the country, both urban and rural, who operated little childminding facilities. They started them themselves, minding two or three children a day, without assistance or help from anyone. They provided a beneficial role, allowed people to work and gave children the care they deserved. They also need to be acknowledged.

We all agree we have moved on from that. The role of the county and city child care committees under the various boards must be acknowledged. They have played an important role. They are supported by the Department in achieving guidelines and standards, and the establishment of new facilities, all over the country.

There are many areas where there are no childminding or crèche facilities at all, and people are still relying on their families. That is a pity in this day and age, and is an area I hope is addressed in the future, where county and city child care committees do engage with communities and identify areas where there are no facilities. It is often the case that communities have the best capacity and organisation reap the rewards. They are the people who have the capacity to apply for grants and organise themselves to get the facilities. However, there are areas in the poverty trap. They are the places that need help. The Minister of State must bring this message back to the Department. These are the areas that need direct assistance and engagement from officialdom, whether it is through local authorities, county child care committees or the Department itself. We must give those communities the capacity to organise themselves to bring proper community childcare facilities into their areas. They see them happening in more affluent areas, but they see vast housing estates around themselves that local authorities built, with the approval of Departments many years ago, with no child care facilities whatsoever. That must be addressed.

We have had a U-turn in the Dáil today; the last U-turn I remember was last year when the child care subvention was due to be hit. There was a revolt in the Government and a Senator said, "We will sort that out in our parliamentary party". It went some way to addressing the issue because it adjusted the bands to keep community crèches open. However, according to today's headlines there is a real threat to these crèches. After all the good work and the progress they have made, there is now a threat of funds being pulled from them.

The reality is that there are people who cannot afford these crèches unless they are subsidised. If we weaken the support to people who are already trying their best to get into the workplace and put their children into proper child care facilities, the whole structure will take a step backwards. We do not want that. We want to see genuine progress and we must continue supporting community child care services.

I agree with Senator Buttimer. While there are excellent child care facilities available, we cannot leave it to the private sector alone. That would be a dangerous road to go down. We would be leaving whole sectors of our community without these facilities and badly exposed, and it is the children of those families who will suffer if we allow that to happen. As an elected representative and a parent, that is something I would not like to see happen.

I wish to mention children with special needs because child care extends to all children. There are many children with conditions such as autism, dyslexia and other special needs on which we have had debates in this House. Those children are not getting the response from the State they deserve. These are innocent, vulnerable children with small voices but no powers. I am aware of cases where there could be over 250 children in a school but only four children per year can go for assessment. Even if four children are being assessed and their difficulties addressed, whether behavioural or otherwise, there are many more children in that school who need assessments and the services of the State but they are not getting it. They are suffering for those reasons.

I understand that in tough budgetary times we must be able to account for public expenditure but the last people who should suffer are our children. I often hear economists talk about productive investment and that we should not invest unless there is a productive outcome for that investment. I can think of no better investment than investing in our children and in their future, and helping those with special needs. The outcomes from the assistance they will receive will help them in their future years when they will have to become sustainable and perhaps live alone in many cases. As Senator Buttimer said, it is in their formative years that children need the most help. It is an area that should not be neglected. This is an issue for the Minister for children but he must consult with the Minister for Education and Science to ensure that proper resources are provided in our schools to children with behavioural difficulties or special needs.

Children at risk and children in families that are in poverty traps need to be identified quickly and given the assistance of the State. Despite the Celtic tiger boom we experienced, there are still families that are experiencing high levels of poverty and are socially excluded. It is important we remember all of these children as we adopt policies in Government or otherwise going forward.