Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also wish to convey my sympathies to the family of Damien O'Reilly, in particular his fiancé Lisa, his children, Carly and Kyle, and his wider circle. Damien was a friend, and a colleague of many of us. He was a really happy-go-lucky guy and he will be sorely missed around this House by his colleagues and everyone in the Fianna Fáil Party.

I also want to raise the issue of the childcare providers who are outside Leinster House today and who I had the opportunity to meet. From a parent's perspective, I am in the thick of childcare at the moment. Because of the dysfunctionality in the industry, parents are being advised to put their child's name down for a place even before they decide to have a child. It is such a lottery to get a place. If people get a place they are delighted because there is no choice out there. All these early childcare providers are leaving the industry. Many women with children and babies cannot get their baby into the baby room. Women I have spoken to have said that most of the baby rooms are not in existence anymore. The only option for a woman who has to go back to work is to get private childcare in her own home. That is not really covered at all in the budget. If a woman decides that the best option for her family is to get someone into her house to mind her children, there are very few incentives or tax credits to support that decision. There is genuine dysfunctionality within the industry. As my colleagues have pointed out, there are multiple agencies that people have to deal with. There is red tape and bureaucracy. In the ECCE scheme, for instance, young people working looking after our children, the most vulnerable, only get paid during term time. ECCE does not run during the summer holidays. We all still have to go to work during the summer holidays. It is a lose-lose for those in the industry and those who are relying on childcare arrangements. As others have said, we have to move somehow. Childcare providers need to see a plan of how the State can get more directly involved in providing childcare in this country because at the moment, it is not working. We need to see both a long-term and a short-term plan to help these professionals stay within the industry.