Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein)

I will be brief as many of the arguments were played out in the debate on Friday. The one-parent family payment provided recognition of the greater practical burden faced by one-parent families trying to access employment and raise children. Other Senators raised the matter of the contributions made in the Dáil. The Tánaiste said there that the measures relating to the lowering of the age of the youngest child would go hand in hand with changes in the delivery and provision of child care and that it would be possible to implement those changes over time. Like OPEN, Barnardos and the National Women's Council, I remain unconvinced that the quality of child care needed can be delivered in the very ambitious timeframe put forward. Neither they nor I believe that changes to the one family payment should be cemented in legislation before a plan or road map is in place. There is no additional funding or investment available to restructure the child care, preschool or after school care in the short to medium term.

Senator van Turnhout asked what savings would be made when this proposal is implemented and many people have pointed out that any savings made must be targeted and used for children. Will the savings made be targeted at child care provisions and used to restructure them? When and how will that happen? It is incomprehensible that we are going to cement such radical changes in legislation without ensuring that any comprehensive reform of child care services is in place. It is for that reason that Sinn Féin opposes this section.