David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that Pobal and the Waterford Childcare Committee are working with the board and the staff to try to find a resolution, and that the Minister's staff are also assisting in that. The problem is the income. The board does not have enough income to sustain the service and the staff are being asked to take an 8% pay cut. Most of these staff earn less than €250 a week. Consider that someone who has gone through college, has a degree and is providing a first-class child care service is on less than €250 a week for a full-time job and is being asked to take an 8% pay cut. That is the position the board has been put in. It does not want to impose pay cuts of that nature but has no choice because, notwithstanding the figures given by the Minister, there is not enough money going into the centre to run it. We are now at a crisis point as the staff are adamant that they will not take an 8% pay cut.

One must support their right to say that, particularly in view of the level of their remuneration.

Where does all of this leave us? I do not want to hear that the Minister and his officials are engaged and offering support but rather that they are actively participating in finding a solution. Part of such a solution is discovering whether there is a possibility that additional funding might be made available in order to ensure that the centre can meet its expenditure needs. Every organisation is obliged to cut its cloth to suit its measure but there appears to be a serious deficit between what the centre takes in and how much it costs to provide the service. However, this service is necessary for those 100 children and their parents who avail of it. The Minister referred to €70,000 in State funding being invested but if the centre closes and if people are left without access to child care service, then the cost to the State might be a great deal more.