Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an important debate about the cost-of-living crisis. It is interesting when we talk about widening who we are targeting with supports to people who have so-called good salaries that we are shamed for it by some people in this House. We must focus on our ongoing fundamental responsibility to those who are suffering the most, namely, those in and at risk of poverty and people who are surviving, barely surviving or not surviving. However, we must also look at people who are struggling now more than ever and those are not people who are well-off. They are people on the margins and the squeezed middle. They pay a large proportion of income tax but are earning too much to qualify for State supports and are paying hand over fist for essential services and goods. I agree the best response from Government is to reduce costs in a structured way to reduce burdens and bills on families.

I want to talk about childcare and the need to increase subsidies but we must look at supply. A short-term measure there is to look at community childcare. The Minister is doing such great work in rural Ireland. There is phenomenal and transformational change in rural Ireland and suburban villages could also benefit from hubs and community childcare that enables people to live and work locally and bring more people into employment.

One thing I wish to especially focus on is that recently the Government approved legislation that will remove the existing statutory inpatient charge of €80 per night for all children aged under 16 years across public hospitals. I bring to the Minister's attention the children's urgent care centres. These are new care centres. There is one in Connolly Hospital. Until recently it operated from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. It now operates Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That is something I called for for a long time. I have had incidents with the kids on Saturdays and Sundays when they are at matches. For children aged up 16 years there is a levy of €75 to use that urgent care centre. I again reference the families who are on such a tight budget, are on the margins or are in the squeezed middle. This is one of the things that can push them over the edge. We cannot allow that to stop emergency care or urgent care for children. We should scrap the levies at children's emergency rooms and also in those urgent care centres.