"IN the past, it has felt safe for parents to make their own childcare arrangements It doesn't any more," says Frances Fitzgerald, TD. That single perception sums up the traumatic experience which looking for childcare has become for parents. Many lurch from crisis to crisis, coming up with Sellotape solutions to what should be a well planned approach to their children's psychological and intellectual development.
"A lot of young women are very unhappy about their experience of childcare at the moment," she says. "They feel that they are putting very young babies into poor quality care, where they know in their hearts that their babies are not happy - so they cannot concentrate at work. It's a crisis for the parents and the child," she says.
Unfortunately, most male politicians seem oblivious to this crisis in family life, ignoring since 1983 multiple reports calling for a radical rethink of the way we care for our children. Sexism is at the root of their refusal to acknowledge that society has changed radically. It's time for the Irish to "grow up and face the reality for many young families now, that both parents must work in order to afford a mortgage," she believes.
"There's an assumption that if women really cared about their children in the first place they would not need child care provision. We need to replace this with the new assumption that Irish women and men who are parents will do the best for their children, so how will the State support them?" says Ms Fitzgerald.
While it may be hard to believe = that such sexist ideas still exist, Ms Fitzgerald is convinced that childcare provision is being ignored because of the hoary old chestnut that women who work outside the home are stealing "men's" jobs. "This old thinking is fed by the huge problem of unemployment. People do not want to open their eyes to the fact that more and more women are in the workplace. I haven't the slightest doubt that despite our outward support for equality, we are not Investing in childcare because we are interested in keeping women out of the workplace.
In 1994, the report to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform by the Working Group on Childcare facilities for Working Parents said as much. "It may seem an inopportune time to promote measures for reconciling work and family responsibilities when there is a substantial excess in the labour supply."
But the report went on to argue that there are "substantial economic arguments for the development of childcare provision. To ignore the childcare needs of parents, particularly mothers, is to ignore the rich human capital of some 50 per cent of our human resources. Secondly we would like to stress that the childcare sector is, in itself, a source of job creation as a number of EU countries have proven," it argued.
The Area Development Management programme is administering £1.85 million from the Department of Equality and Law Reform to grant aid community childcare projects in disadvantaged areas. The EU has given £75 million for local development (matched by £25 million from the State), a proportion of which is intended to be spent on child care, although no specific budget has been allocated for this purpose. However, there is evidence of childcare initiatives in plans submitted for funding by Area Partnerships.
The EU's argument that supporting childcare is intrinsic to economic development may yet drag Irish male politicians towards enlightenment on the issue. "If you don't deal with these issues you are limiting people's opportunities to contribute to society and you are timing your workforce and interfering with your workforce's potential contributions," says Ms Fitzgerald.
SHE also believes that we have to give up the notion that working mothers are pitting their children against their need - or desire - to earn money. Integrating good childcare practice into society and the workplace by "facing the reality of people's lives" is the solution, she thinks. "Some parents are going to work full time and need a variety of supports, others will work part time or flexi time and need other kinds of supports. Still others would like to remain in the home full time to care for =their children and need economic support to do that too. The reality =is that there is no barrier between women in the home and women who work outside the home. It's really about opportunities and choices for women.
"We need to be able to create a society in which both parents do not have to work if one wants to stay home with the children. I want to be able to create a society where women and men can equally have a choice about staying at home with their children. Some may say it's too idealistic, but I think we should really be aiming for that."
Who is going to plan this child friendly new world? The responsibility for childcare lies with the Department of Health, but that department is actually concerned with child protection and abuse, rather than early childhood education other than in disadvantaged areas.
"The first problem we have to deal with is that we do not know who is in charge of childcare," says Ms Fitzgerald. "There is a mix of initiatives. It has to be lifted into a whole new level of politics and political priority within our society. The ideal would be to have an agency responsible for developing a broad overall policy of childcare provision and prototypes for different sorts of childcare. We have to think in terms that if you really want to support children and families and parenting, you have to think of a partnership between parents, Government and community," she says.
"It's about helping mothers and fathers not to feel isolated about making their childcare plans. There is a real sense now that everyone puts up with their own arrangements, arguing with employers about work hours, coping with a range of school hours, running home to do housework and meal preparation, which often makes for fractious arguments. It's a very individual way of coping. Ms Fitzgerald is convinced that male politicians will not be able to dismiss the needs of such parents for much longer. She adds: "We have tended to see quality of life issues such as childcare as `little politics', but I am certain that they will become `big politics' and take the place they deserve at the top of the political agenda in the 21st century.
