Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English, to the House. This morning he seems to be Minister of State for all trades.

I have tabled a motion on commercial rates on child care. It is not the first time that I have raised this matter and it was one of the first issues I raised when I became a Senator. The climate has changed since then because educational preschool services have been put to the forefront by this Government. I hope I will get a better response to my query this time. There has been a good response to the Seanad's motion to exempt community child care facilities from rates. Today, I am referring to the impact rates have on educational establishments.

Preschool education is an educational and social facility that is now available to all children in Ireland and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has announced the introduction of a second year of free preschool education. This is the first year that the Department of Education and Skills has become involved in the inspection of preschools as, heretofore, such work was done by the HSE and Tusla. That shows how much we value preschool education and it is now available to every child for two years. Preschool education has been deemed more important than all of the other stages of education because 80% of a child's intelligence develops between the ages of zero and three years. Why is preschool education looked on as a commercial entity and used as an opportunity to charge rates? If commercial rates for such places were fairly treated throughout the country it would be something but, unfortunately, rates differ from county to county. Let us discuss the type of space that attracts rates. Ms Teresa Heeney, from Early Childhood Ireland, has conducted a very good survey of its members on the subject of commercial rates. Early Childhood Ireland has a lot of members but not every provider of preschool education is a member. There was a very good response to the survey. It shows that 40% of participants stated that rates are applied to the amount of space inside but rates are also charged on outside space. As much as 37% of rates charged includes all space; 5% rate the classroom size only; and 7% rate other things as well. Some counties impose rates on storage space, cupboards or whatever. The survey shows that there is no standard approach to commercial rates.

The survey also shows the number of crèches, which now must all be registered with the HSE, versus the number of places that pay rates. Some counties are very good and County Carlow is the best as 62% of its HSE registered crèches pay rates. What is different about County Carlow? It has a very low base rate as the average charged is €1,900. In County Leitrim only 11% of its crèches are registered with the HSE. Obviously a lot of them may be community crèches or there may not be as many commercial crèches or whatever. We simply do not know. Let us take two parents who earn exactly the same salary and say one lives in County Leitrim while the other lives in County Carlow. In that case totally different rules and regulations apply to the rates that must be paid. County Longford is very good as 71% of its HSE registered crèches pay rates. I think that county has as many community crèches as other counties or at least it deserves to have as many community crèches which would not be rated.

I will outline the reasons I tabled my Commencement matter. First, preschool educational establishments should not be charged commercial rates. Second, on foot of the survey conducted by Early Childhood Ireland, I wish to point out that the way commercial rates are charged around the country is unfair. For example, only 15% of HSE registered crèches in Sligo pay rates. I am not saying that more of them should pay rates. Indeed, that 15% of enterprises should not pay rates at all.

The survey also shows that most of the rates are generated in the County Dublin area. A sum of €14 million has been collected in total. As much as €11 million of that sum has come from Dublin and the rest of the money comes from the rest of the country. Even though the rates of pay in Dublin are generally higher there is something radically wrong with the system and it must be corrected. It is impossible to ensure financial sustainability. Some schools have huge arrears which they cannot afford to pay. I acknowledge what has been done for community child care but I want the same done for crèches, which are educational establishments.