Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As always, the Minister of State is very welcome.
I welcome the Bill, in particular the increase in child benefit, the introduction of the back-to-work family dividend, the increase in the living alone allowance and the Christmas bonus and, in particular, the retention of the earnings disregard for one parent families and the doubling of JobsPlus payments.
I add to the appeal of Senator Marie Moloney that, if there are savings in the case of after-school clubs, perhaps Childline, as the service for children that provides support for them, might benefit. The difficulty is that there are no Government standards for after-school clubs or how the funding is to be paid. There is a lack of consistency and quality around the country because the Government is not stating what regulations it wants to see applied to after-school clubs. These clubs are very important and we should have them in place, but the Government has to give a direction, or else we will have to wait several years, as happened in the child care system - for a crisis to happen and then do something about it.
I very much welcome that clarity has been provided in the case of Waterford Crystal. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for individual workers. It is great to be part of something so positive and the timing is very important.
The difficulty for me is that when we were making cuts, some of which I supported with a heavy heart, as I do not like to make any cut, we were given a narrative about the importance of services. We were quoted the first report of the advisory group on tax and social welfare on child and family income support which stated: "The Group recognises that child income support payments cannot be viewed in isolation from other State supports for children such as education, health services and childcare". We were encouraged not to always look at CAF transfers but instead to invest in services because that was where we would achieve the quality outcome. For example, the OECD's 2014 report shows that Ireland is now the most expensive country in the OECD and one of the two most expensive countries in the world for child care, yet we have the lowest rates of investment in Europe in child care services. The report states a family with two children spend 40% of their average wage on child care costs, whereas the average in the OECD is 12%. No wonder we are high in the ranking.
A number of Senators, including Senator Paschal Mooney, raised the issue of child care payments if people moved to another country. The difficulty is that in other countries the benefits are availed of through services. Whether it is through health, education or child care services, the investments are made in order that citizens can get the benefit. I certainly concur with Senator Katherine Zappone on the habitual residence condition. For me, every child in the country is, first and foremost, a child and the idea that we put an artificial bar in place and say we have this habitual residence condition is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. In the recent UNICEF report Ireland was in the bottom five of 41 developed countries with respect to the impact of the economic crisis on child well-being. While we can welcome the increase, we have evidence that children in Ireland fared worse than those in other OECD countries. The vast majority of OECD developed countries were impacted on by the global financial crisis but many of them managed to actually decrease their rate of child poverty in their responses to the crisis, whereas we managed to increase it. In fact, I agree with the UNICEF Ireland director, Mr. Peter Power, who said:

Countries should place the well-being of children at the top of their priorities during economic recessions. Not only is this a moral obligation, but it is in the long term self-interest of societies. Children living in poverty are more likely to become impoverished adults and have poor children, creating and sustaining intergenerational cycles of poverty.

The report found that the rate of child poverty had risen by over 10% between 2008 and 2012. While that does not cover the period of the Government, we know that there were further cuts made during its time in office; therefore, we can speculate that the position has not improved. This is very grave and we should be taking note of it.
We need to look at how we invest. When I heard about the €5 increase in child benefit, a part of me was happy and I accept that it will make a difference for some families, especially those on low incomes. However, is it where we want to get to? That is my difficulty. During the crisis we were lectured in the House about the importance of investing in services, particularly child care services. The Tánaiste told us that we needed safe, affordable and accessible child care services in place, similar to those found in Scandinavian countries. The Minister of State can see I am not happy about this. While we had previously heard that the issue of a second preschool year would be looked at in 2016, in response to a recent parliamentary question, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, told us it would be introduced in 2020 at the earliest. Everybody is in agreement on its importance, particularly for special needs children, for whom I have made an appeal in the Seanad. As we know about the importance of a second preschool year, why are we not looking to make this investment?
The Department of Social Protection has signed up to the whole-of-government policy, Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, a policy for children and young people from birth to 24 years. Its second key goal is achieving their full potential in learning and development, yet it has not been demonstrated to me that we are going to do what we said during the crisis when we took the tough decisions. As I said, I supported the Minister in making those decisions, but I was lectured that it was all about services. However, I do not see the money going into the provision of services and we are still cutting our investment in them.