01 February 2006
Dr Henry: I thank Senator Norris for sharing his time with me. I agree with some aspects of his speech, in that a great deal of this debate is focused solely on money and not on the fact that people should be able to have extra time with their children. To me, this is one of the most important facets of the entire child care debate. I deeply regret that the issue of flexitime has not yet been raised.
It is not fair to state that any remarks made by any Fine Gael Senators have been racist. It was not so.
Ms Feeney: No one stated that they were.
Dr Henry: Moreover, I have some sympathy for their suggestions concerning a voucher system.
Mr. B. Lenihan: No one stated that any of their remarks was racist.
Mr. Norris: No, it was stated that they were xenophobic.
Acting Chairman: Senator Henry should continue.
Dr Henry: I am not accusing the Minister of State in this regard. There have been accusations outside the House to that effect. The Minister of State should note that I am also allowed to make statements in the House. I do not think any of those remarks was meant to be racist. It was that they were considering whether this accounting exercise had been properly carried out.
There is quite a bit to be said about vouchers for child care. I cannot go back on this now, seeing as for years I asked the former Ministers for Finance, Deputy Quinn and Charlie McCreevy, and the current Minister, Deputy Cowen, to introduce them stating that they would be a good way of ensuring that what money we were giving for child care was being spent on child care. Senator Norris is correct in mentioning the money side of this being the most important matter but of course the most important matter is to get women back to work as fast as possible.
The early care of the child is not being given sufficient attention. While I acknowledge the importance of the extension to maternity leave, we know that this is an extraordinarily important time of the child's life, not just for bonding with the mother but also to encourage breast-feeding. We have made efforts in this direction and in ten years the proportion of mothers breast-feeding when they leave hospital has risen from 30% to 44.5%. However, 66% of mothers from the professional class and those with third level education will leave hospital breast-feeding whereas 21% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds will leave hospital breast-feeding. We are still not giving enough support to mothers when they leave maternity hospital, where a considerable amount of work is put into this issue, but there are overworked public health nurses trying to continue it.
We need to do more to make this seem a positive aspect of women's life rather than tolerate the sort of remarks that are sometimes made about women who breast-feed. I was grateful on two occasions recently to find that fine big children of six months were continuing to be breast-fed. I was on the Enterprise to Belfast recently, when the train broke down at Poyntzpass for three and a half hours. There was no question of bottles being heated and I was glad that the child opposite me was being breast-fed.
On another occasion on a flight from London with Aer Lingus, where there was still some idea of public service for passengers, a child was putting up a fierce fight with his mother. She told me that she was trying to wean him and I replied by asking if she could not wait until we got to Dublin to try. She obliged which made for a much more peaceful journey for all on the aeroplane.
I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, and the Government for what they have done but again add their slogan that there is a lot more still to do.
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