Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Boyhan touched on Traveller, migrant and disadvantaged children. I want to make clear that those children are not the problem. Sometimes it is not what we say but the way we say it. We need to be careful around funding and equal access. I thank the Senator for bringing that to my attention today. While we are talking about childcare, we are not talking about equal access to childcare services for poor people or those from ethnic minority groups. I and my colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group, Senators Black, Ruane and Higgins, are passionate about childcare, and they were passionate about it long before I came to the House.

I welcome the Minister. At its best, childcare keeps our children happy and healthy and helps them develop skills they need for school and throughout their lives. As a parent, there is nothing more important to me than the safety and happiness of my children. Still, for many parents, being able to afford childcare and even being able to find a place for a child can be a nightmare.

I know this has been a priority for the Minister and I look forward to his reforms of the funding model for early learning and childcare. I understand this funding model, as the Minister mentioned, will deliver improved services, better pay and conditions for staff and affordable childcare, as well as better matching supply to demand, addressing issues of disadvantage and supporting providers to be sustainable, so that people know they will have a job in two or three years and the crèches will still be there. I welcome these goals. It cannot happen soon enough because what we have had for many years is not working.

During the last general election, childcare was already a serious issue for parents. There is frustration among parents because of the problems they have had in accessing services for some time and the costs involved. With all the respect in the world, I want to believe the reforms will do everything the Minister says they will and I believe everyone wants to see action on them. Across parties and groupings, Senators want to see implementation. From discussions I have had over the past two years on many issues beside childcare, I see that we lack, first and foremost, implementation. We can have the best will in the world, but without implementation it is pointless having it on paper and it does nobody any good.

I could talk about this all day. When we talk about women's equality, as has been happening a lot lately, the core conversation around the table should be childcare. If Senators were to look at me and my partner Liam and say which of us would give up our job for the children, it is more likely that it would be me than my partner.I believe women would give up their job more quickly than men, and that is without getting too personal. It is only an example. A lot of the time there are hard decisions to be made within a family setting about childcare. I believe childcare should be free. It should be an essential public service for everybody and we see models of that at a European level. We see this in Finland and, I believe, Switzerland. I know that at least three European countries provide it for free. It works and it is evident it works, and that is what we should do in this country.

My colleague, Senator Garvey, was singing the praises of the childcare services with which she was in contact. When we are talking about childcare, again we do not speak about childcare services in rural Ireland. People in rural Ireland work as well and in some cases, as we have heard from Senators here, it is extremely difficult to access childcare. I invite the Minister to our community crèche in Ardara, County Donegal. If he takes that opportunity to visit Donegal, I also invite him to visit a Traveller-specific and Roma childcare service at the Donegal Travellers Project in Letterkenny that needs a lot of support when it comes to funding. It would be a lovely event.

When we talk about women's equality, childcare should be at the heart of those conversations. I genuinely hope with all of my heart that we provide free childcare for the many women, men and parents in Ireland. I have heard it said that paying for childcare is like paying two mortgages or rents, and we all know how expensive rent is in Ireland. We have many different crises within our society and I hope childcare can be one less. I am sure it will be, and I hope it is one that is solved sooner rather than later.