Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I suspect the Leader is quite similar to me in that, as the parent of a young child, she has seen the work done by childcare providers across the country. Sometimes we have an old perception that they just mind children for a couple of hours until the parents return. In fact, they are educators and they do phenomenal work. Many times when my child comes home I am amazed at what he has learned during the day. The Government has recognised this and the challenges for parents with regard to costs of childcare and supporting childcare providers. This is very welcome. I hope that in the next budget it will be done again. It has made a significant difference for families throughout the country.

There is speculation that we will support child minders. This is very important. They do the same amount of work as childcare providers. We do not have enough childcare providers the country to cope with the demand for childcare. It is important to recognise the work that childminders do. They are registered legitimate businesses and they need to be recognised as such. One of the challenges for them is registering with Tusla because of the complications that come with it. For example, they could not take on a second person in their homes if they were registered with Tusla. Many of these childminders would not continue if they had to do this to be able to receive some form of support. I ask that the Department and the Minister look at it. Are they devising a scheme to support people who have childminders as opposed to childcare providers? This all come back to the fact that we do not have enough childcare providers. Many people have grandparents who step up to the mark because they cannot go anywhere else. They cannot get a childcare provider and they cannot get a child minder. We need to be able to recognise this because they play a key role. We could give them a top-up payment on their pension or a tax break of some kind. This would be important because they play a key role.