Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am thankful the Minister has come to the House today to address this issue. I have been contacted by a number of early childcare providers for a variety of reasons over the past year, but I was alarmed to be told just last week that there is a system of withdrawing funding based on how promptly parents drop off or pick up their children at childcare facilities. Is this the practice of Pobal, which administers this fund, that childcare providers are being unfairly penalised for parents leaving children late or collecting them early? Are we really that inflexible? Parents could be running late for an enormous number of reasons or they could get off work early and want to spend quality time with their child. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is being rather mean if money is being withheld from providers for these reasons. The childcare staff still need to be paid, and the heat and light still need to be paid for. Why would we have a system where providers have to take the hit for parents needing time in their lives to spend with their children? Time is something that is becoming more and more precious for all of us. Could the Minister clarify and explain the thinking behind this?

This kind of thing does not happen to the capitation grants in our schools, so it should not happen in our preschools. We have a massive issue with childcare in this country, and I hear about it on the doorsteps when I canvass in Carlow for the local elections. We need a massive overhaul of how this is done. In other countries preschools and schools fall under the same umbrella. Until we classify things properly, we cannot do things right now to reap the benefits later. I am eager to see what the new national childcare scheme will bring because parents and providers both need help, and staff need to be well paid. Early childhood education and care should be affordable and high quality, but out of all the OECD countries, Ireland's childcare is the second most expensive for couples and the most expensive for single parents. We only invest 0.2% of our GDP in childcare, which is miles behind the OECD average of 0.7%. UNICEF recommended investing 1% to catch up. We need to triple our investment in childcare. Working parents spend around a fifth of their income on childcare, which is four times more than in Sweden, while childcare in Canada can cost as little as $10 a day.

We have seen significant economic changes in Ireland over the last decade. We have seen both a birth spurt and a birth decline. We have seen opportunities expanded and possibilities opened for families. We have seen a sea change in both women's and men's roles, and there is no such thing as normal anymore. We are who we are and we live as we live, and we need to embrace that. It is a major change and a whole new culture, but we are not keeping up with these changes. It is said that politics lags behind reality by about 20 years, so it stands to reason that we are investing in what was needed in 1999, but it is now 2019 and significant investment and change are required.

Providers in the early childhood care and education scheme, ECCE, say capitation of €69, where staff have minimum qualifications of levels 5 and 6, over 38 weeks, does not come close to covering the costs and delivering the scheme. The higher capitation rate of €80.25 per child per week depends on a high standard of staff with paid experience. The Minister is aware of the importance of this stage of education, and while the sector has seen an upsurge in parents being able to send their children to this stage, providers suffer because they are constantly making up the shortfall, or even going unpaid. Several of them have told me they feel they are not making a wage. These providers print and process all the paperwork for the scheme at a cost to themselves, and they do not get paid non-contract time when they are working on curricula, staff meetings, etc. Insurance, commercial rates and other utilities have all increased dramatically, and more work needs to be done to invest in those who provide the high-quality childcare which we all seek. It is wrong to make the provider pay when funding is being withdrawn due to the time keeping of parents.

Carlow has one of the highest percentages of qualified early years staff in Ireland, yet many of them cannot afford to live on their wages.When they qualify they often go into another field because they do not get enough pay and cannot get mortgages etc. I know the Minister is aware of this and I believe she will be working on it. We need to ensure that staff in this area are properly paid.

Ultimately we should bring this sector under the umbrella of education so that it can be properly funded. It all boils down to the funding. I thank the Minister for coming to the House today. It is a major issue. As a parent, I see how people are struggling with paying for mortgages and childcare. It is getting harder.