Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 September 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Catherine NooneCatherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join other speakers in welcoming the Attorney General's decision on the Stardust tragedy. It is a huge day for the families that have campaigned for many years. It is to be hoped the inquest will go some way to addressing the issues on which they have been seeking answers.

I also join my colleagues who raised questions about childcare workers. When I attended the briefing this morning, I was aware that there were issues, because as my party's spokesperson on children, I have much interaction with stakeholders in the area. It is very important that workers in this area are paid properly. They are often very well-educated and the Government has introduced a scheme to incentivise that, though I have heard anecdotally that it is not always passed on to individual workers. A more fundamental issue, however, is how we as a society want childcare to be and how we wish our young people to be taken care of. The years during which early childcare workers care for children are the most important years in a child's development. We have heard that individuals are finding it very difficult to make ends meet, which was not news to me because I often interact with people who work in the area. They are being paid a very low wage relative to the important work they do, so I hope extra funding is allocated for this. It is important to say that many good schemes have been put in place over recent years and over consecutive budgets. I and others in Fine Gael have tried to prioritise this area and we were the first Government to put a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in place. There have been improvements and while it is important to recognise them, we need to take further steps to improve the overall sector. Improving the wages and job satisfaction of those workers and making them feel valued for the work they do is fundamental to improving the overall system.

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