Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As other Senators rightly said, it is after 8 p.m. and we are speaking about childcare. I thank my colleagues in the Labour Party for tabling this very important motion before the House. I am a mother of two young children. Lacey has just gone 15 months and Billie is three. I put Billie's name down for childcare when I was working in the National Traveller Women's Forum before I came to the Seanad. The reality is that if I had Billie in childcare and was also trying to get Lacey into childcare, I would not be able to afford to work in Dublin and pay childcare as well as the rest of my bills.

I am extremely privileged to have the opportunity to be able to do the work I love doing empowering women. We often have conversations about women going for election and participating in public life and women not getting equality of opportunity. Unfortunately many women cannot put themselves forward for these opportunities. It is not because our children are a problem. They are far from a problem. It is that even though we have made some progress in childcare the problem is our childcare system, the cost of childcare and the number of spaces available for young children.

Billie is now in preschool. She gets fed and well looked after. It is a great three-hour service every day. She is in five days a week. It is a little rural community crèche in Ardara. I have invited the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to visit and I hope he will take me up on the offer some day. We speak about women participating in society. How can women on the margins of society, such as Traveller women, migrant women and poor women, fully participate in society with so many challenges? Having a child is not the problem, it is the system.

The motion calls for specific emergency capital funding to ensure the availability of spaces in crèche, preschools and afterschools. I am a working mother and I know how hard it is to be a full-time mother and full-time politician. It is about education. Billie has advanced so much. She is a little girl who this time last year was shy of people. She is out of her shell now. We brought her to the turning on of the Christmas lights in Ardara last week. She engaged and she was singing. She wants to go to Mass every Sunday to participate in the singing. It is the workers in the crèche who care for my little girl who have brought her out of her shell. They meet her needs and they feed and look after the children.

As other colleagues said, in some parts of the EU, such as Finland, early education for children is considered an essential service. Why can we not do this? This is a crucial question that I would like to be answered by the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. Why can we not make early child education a public service? Why can we not make it a part of our education system? I will leave the Minister of State with this question. Since my time at the National Traveller Women's Forum, I am sick to the teeth of trying to bring the voices of minority women to the table. We want to have children and be able to work and participate in society. How can we do this when we do not have adequate and appropriate childcare?

Childcare also impacts on men. It impacts on families. We all know this. This evening I am specifically focusing on the participation of women. I am speaking about women who want to work. I often look back and wonder how my mother did it 33 years ago with nine of us. She did not have a choice but to deal with the nine of us. We have come a long way with services but we need to go further. We need to invest in our young people.We need to invest in people to be able to have gender equality in order that all people can participate in society and fulfil their dreams and ambitions for life. All of us in the Civil Engagement Group support Labour's motion.