Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)

The motion was brought forward in good faith but I do not think it will solve our problem. I do not doubt the Minister's bone fides in what he is trying to do but, unfortunately, it is ineffective. We have a cross-section of private and public childcare. Some 74% of our childcare is catered for in the private sector and 26% is in the public sector. They are not a million miles apart in the cost base but funding is the real issue. It is often too little too late. The problem we have is that we end up with the cost base eroding the Government input, and far in excess of it. If we look at the information the childcare federation has provided, it depicts matters quite well. It uses a stool to illustrate the position, and the providers are the third leg. What the federation is saying is that the input has been increased by 15% but the costs have gone up by 28%. That 13% deficit is being met by private providers. Essentially, the net increase of €75 million only covers 44% of the ERO increases that have been set down by the Minister.

Where this is going to fall is in the context of our nursing home sector. Some 80% of patients in nursing homes are catered for in private nursing homes, yet the 20% who are catered for by the HSE probably cost an extra €400 per bed. We see nursing home closures day on day. We see them being taken over by much larger conglomerate nursing homes coming in from outside the country because they are able to compete in that they are buying en masse and so forth. That is not going to happen in the childcare sector. We have a level of corporate crèches in urban areas that we do not have in rural areas. In my area, we primarily depend on the family resource centres. In my local family resource centre in Ramsgrange, they are wonderful people. All people in childcare have a vocation because at €15 an hour they could probably get more working for our conglomerate supermarkets. The problem with that is that we have two-income families who greatly depend on childcare regardless of whether it is private or public. They are trying to find childcare where they can.

We have a mass exodus from the scheme in order to prevent closures. I see the Minister is shaking his head. I did say I did not doubt his bone fides in this matter. The reality is the reality, however. This is happening across Government sectors. We cannot build houses without builders and we cannot keep throwing money at the problem because clearly they do not know what the problem is in housing. It would appear that the cart is very much before the horse in the area of childcare. We cannot do this and transition without having a just transition from private into public and without decimating the sector first. That just should not happen. It is happening in the healthcare sector, where we have a fair deal scheme that is no longer fit for purpose. That scheme does not support nursing homes' costs. We are probably going to see a reduced level of care and then we will have tribunals, inquiries and reports just as we seeing as described by my colleague earlier in the context of lawsuits.

I asked the Minister last year to please not go down this road in order that we would not end up in that position. Unfortunately, we are going down that road. I have people who cannot get childcare at any cost. In the public sector, we do not have anybody going into it because they are not able to earn enough to meet their costs of living and they are taking jobs in supermarkets. Our family resource centre in Ramsgrange cannot open a section for children under the age of three because it cannot get the requisite staff to operate under the regulation. We are causing these problems. As much money as the Minister is putting in, it may be too little too late. We need to look at the model because he is doing more harm than good. As I said, I do not doubt his bone fides. Unfortunately, I believe the model we are instituting is not effective.

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