Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)

I support this motion, which is not just welcome but urgently needed. Across the constituency of Cork North-West, from Millstreet to Macroom and Charleville to Ballyvourney, I hear stories from parents and providers alike. Families are under pressure. Parents are going out to work to pay for childcare. In many cases, their monthly fees are higher than their mortgage. For a young mother in Kanturk or father in Newmarket that means going to work not to get ahead or save for the future, but simply to keep their place in the crèche. That is the reality of what is happening. Spaces are scarce everywhere but in rural Ireland it is even worse. Mothers who have only just found out they are pregnant are putting their unborn children on waiting lists, hoping and praying that by the time the maternity leave ends a space might open up. That level of anxiety and planning years in advance is not normal, healthy or fair. Families are trapped in a system that simply does not work. While there are stay-at-home fathers, it is mostly women, as always, who pay the highest price. Too many are being forced to step back or step away from their careers entirely because it does not make financial sense to work when all their earnings go straight to paying childcare fees. This motion is welcome because it faces the truth head-on. It recognises the current model is broken and is failing families, educators and children alike. What is needed is not another glossy press release but real structural change, like investment in a public model that delivers €10 per day childcare, fair pay for early educators and capacity where families actually live.

Senator Kyne’s amendment is quite extraordinary. It reads like the Government is patting itself on the back while parents are barely hanging on. It speaks of unprecedented growth in funding, major achievements, award-winning models and pathways set out in the programme for Government. It speaks not once to the lived experience of families struggling right now. Government Senators can quote all the percentages and policy frameworks they like but none of that will change the fact parents are paying well over €1,000 per month for a service they can hardly find. None of it helps a mother who is driving 40 minutes each way because every crèche close to her home is full. None of it helps the early years educator earning less than a supermarket cashier, despite holding a degree and caring for our most precious little ones. Senator Kyne’s amendment might make for a nice Department briefing but it completely ignores what is happening on the ground. It is detached and frankly insulting to those who live with this crisis every day.We are not here to congratulate the Government on how well it thinks it is doing, we are here to tell the truth about how far short it is falling. If things were working as well as the amendment suggests, we would not have parents in tears at kitchen tables wondering how they will pay next month's bill.

Childcare should be a public service and not a private burden. It should enable parents, especially mothers, to participate fully in work and not push them out of it. It should give every child the best start in life and not just those of parents who can afford the fees. The motion is about fairness, equality and the future of our communities. Families are not asking for luxuries, they are asking for the basics of an affordable place, a qualified educator and a bit of stability. The truth is they are still waiting. Instead of patting ourselves on the back we need to get on with the work. We need to build a public model of early years education that treats childcare as essential infrastructure which does not force parents to choose between a career and their children, and finally delivers on all of the promises that have been awaited far too long.