Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on organising the Raise the Roof protest today. I think it will be a momentous protest and I am looking forward to taking part in it. I acknowledge the fact that all of us on the left are co-operating today. Sinn Féin, which is the leading party on the left, the Labour Party, the Green Party, the Social Democrats and Independents on the left are all behind this. We need to think about the potential the left has when it works together and we should focus on what we have in common, rather on what divides us. We should all agree on something as regards next week's budget before it takes place. We all know there is a crisis in child care and that budgets have not addressed the crisis to date, either for parents who have to pay for it or workers in the sector. We have a simple proposal in our alternative budget, which has been costed by the Department of Finance. We could raise the pay of every worker in the child care sector to a living wage of €11.90, which would immediately address the crisis in terms of turnover of staff and would give hope to the workers in the sector. It would cost just €15 million. For years my union, SIPTU, has been campaigning for a sectoral employment order for child care workers and this is what we need to have. It will not happen immediately but our proposal could happen immediately. It is the smallest of asks but it would make a huge difference, both for the workers involved and for the sector. I call on the acting Leader and on Fianna Fáil to acknowledge that it is a reasonable proposal and has been costed and to get behind it to make sure it is in next week's budget. Let us do something today that will stand to those child care workers. They are always forgotten about when we talk about child care and its costs