Senator John McGahon- speech from 2 Jul 2024

Thank you very much Lasky-Hurlock. Minister, it's good to see you back in the House. Just to follow up on a couple of points that Senator Currie made, where she said she knows how much it means to families all over the country who have childminders. It actually brought me back to my own views of it, where I'm 33, so I had a childminder in 1993, my brother was the same, and our childminder was Rose English, who is from the Green Gates in County Louth, who had such a formation on both my brother and my childhood, so much so that she's still a huge part of our lives, even to this day. And it just struck me when Senator Currie said that, how much of an influence childminders have on children right around the country. And I'm really convinced that if it wasn't for Rose and everything that she taught my brother and I, we simply wouldn't be the people we are today. So I just want to have that opportunity to acknowledge childminders and the huge formative role they actually play. One of the things that I'm very kind of welcomed about in this bill is how this legislation, I believe, is going to underpin regulation, and I suppose sensible safeguards, and I think that's a key thing to acknowledge. It's also going to allow childminders to actually participate in the national childcare scheme, and I think that's fair, I think that's equitable, I think it puts them on a level footing as well. But one thing that I would like some clarity on, perhaps Minister, if you could provide it, is we received a pretty detailed email from Child Minding Ireland outlining perhaps various issues they have with this piece of legislation, some of it I agree with, some of it I don't, but one just pointed out that I'd hope to get some clarity on from yourself, and I quote, the problem with child care in Ireland comes from the corporate creches, not locally based childminders. And yet the government proposes an overlay of a centre-based regulatory model on childminders. There's no regulatory impact assessment of this proposal has been produced. Now that's just one query that stuck out to me. It's something I would be keen to hear the government side on. It's something I would be keen to hear your view on, Minister. But all in all, this legislation is an important piece of legislation. It's a very welcome piece of legislation. It's delivering on a number of commitments that we made in the programme for government. And the whole end of it all is childminders play such an important role, both for the parents of the children that they're minding, and both for the children that they are minding as well. And look, we can all think of different childminders, and even how many, many years on, many years on, after that child has become an adult, how they still have had such an impact in that young person's life. And I think that's really important just to have the opportunity to acknowledge that today. Thank you very much.