Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a report in the media again today addressing the issue of child care costs. I and others have raised the continuing high cost of providing child care here. It is now out in the open again. Another report from a child care provider shows that a majority of parents want an extension of the one year free child care as a matter of urgency. They want direct subsidies or tax credits but would prefer direct payments. We have heard a great deal of talk in this House about the Scandinavian models, and another new political grouping last week referred to the Nordic models yet this all seems to be aspirational. We do not hear about the follow through. It is now agreed that it costs a couple with two children €30,000 a year to provide child care, which is as much as a mortgage payment. Child care costs are now equated with mortgage payments. That shows the seriousness of this issue.

Yet again I add my voice to those of many others, inside and outside this House, calling on the Government to act soon, in the budget. It must act to address the high cost of child care which is crippling parents. It is not fair in a society that has a developing and improving economy that this issue is not being tackled. Will the Leader use his considerable influence to convey what I believe is the sentiment of all in this House, that child care costs be addressed, meaningfully and effectively, along the lines of the recommendations of the report, particularly in respect of the extension of the extra year’s free child care, and that direct payments be made to parents to help alleviate the already unacceptable financial burden placed on them?

Senator Barrett referred to Countess Markievicz as the first woman elected to the British Parliament, which she was. She was also the first female Cabinet Minister nominated in Europe, in 1918. In research for a book entitled Women in Parliamentthat I did some years back with Maedhbh McNamara, we discovered that Countess Markievicz went to de Valera as the President of the Executive Council and said if he did not make her a Minister she would join the Labour Party. I am not sure what the reasons for this were.