The Order of Business is No. 1, statements on the pre-budget outlook, to be taken at the conclusion of the Order of Business, with the contributions of spokespersons not to exceed 15 minutes, those of all other Senators not to exceed ten minutes, on which Senators may share time, and with the Minister to be called upon to respond for five minutes at the end of the debate.
Order of Business.
I wish to return to the crisis in child care and read to Members some comments sent to me by e-mail. My correspondent wrote:
Dear Senator Fitzgerald, today the Government made the decision for me that I shall only have one child. Up to now I had been trying to hold my ground against the grinding increases in all of life's necessities but finally my husband and I must admit defeat. The Government has introduced the community child care subvention scheme. This will affect the crèche our daughter attends.
She goes on to say that up to now, she thought she could muddle along. She adds:
This morning, it seems, the Government has won. This is one final increase that we can't overcome so I can only have one child. I thought this was a decision I would make for myself. I won't attempt to express how this makes me feel. Sometimes there aren't words to convey how helpless this country's voters feel.
That e-mail illustrates far better than I could how dramatic the changes proposed by the Government to the child care subvention scheme are. There is a crisis in child care. In my constituency in Clondalkin 400 child care places and 40 jobs are under threat because of the changes to the way child care is funded. I ask the Leader to ensure the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for children, Deputy Brendan Smith, comes to the House as soon as possible to discuss the situation.
The Government must change the rules and regulations it has introduced for the funding of child care. The new rules mean there will be segregation, child care places will be more expensive and community child care schemes that dozens of volunteers have spent the last seven years building up will be destroyed. I support Senator Mary White and others who argued yesterday that we need an urgent debate on child care. The new regulations must be changed and perhaps the Leader would explain to the Government the seriousness of this issue. We urgently need a debate on child care in this House to bring home to the Government the seriousness of the situation for child care providers and parents. The e-mail I received illustrates the dramatic effect these changes will have on families.
I agree with Senator Fitzgerald that the question of child care is an urgent matter. We have debated it in the House previously. It is especially important in the light of the very considerable costs incurred by parents allied to the fact that we now know that quite a number of crèches are completely unsuitable and do not appear to be good value for money. I disagree slightly with the Senator, however, when she describes her constituency as Clondalkin. It is not; it is several hundred county councillors. It may well be that your constituency will be Clondalkin in the future.
On a point of order, the Senator is addressing another Senator directly rather than commenting through the Chair.
It is nice to see that on this side of the House, there is a degree of harmony between the two principal parties. Senator McCarthy's constituency is the same as that of Senator Fitzgerald, so he must suck up to councillors——
The Senator should confine himself to the Order of Business.
We must also address another subject that has been raised in this House previously, namely, the extraordinary impact of alcohol consumption on society. Figures were released today which indicate that Ireland is nearly top of the table in terms of alcohol consumption which has increased alarmingly, particularly among young people.
The principal point I wish to raise is the question of what occurred in the Dáil yesterday and its impact on our legislative programme. The Labour Party put forward its Civil Unions Bill. I experienced a sense of déjà vu and great sadness. It is now four years since I put on the Order Paper of this House the Civil Partnership Bill. Had the Government acted then to support what is a reasonable measure which does not claim marriage, we would now have this law enacted.
The spectre of unconstitutionality has been raised, which is rubbish. Nobody really believes it. That is a creation of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, or as I prefer to call it, the Department of discrimination. The discrimination is emanating from that Department and, unfortunately, we have a decent man, who is well on the way to becoming the Minister for discrimination, in violation of the position adopted in this House by a former Fianna Fáil Minister and Deputy, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. I recall her saying that she, as a Cabinet Minister, would require clear, cogent and factual reasons to introduce discrimination against a citizen.
I have listened to people in this House and in the other one compare the degree of recognition which I would get to somebody with a pet, to a couple of nuns and to a couple of elderly sisters. I repeat what I said yesterday that I am not prepared to accept a dog licence. I am not a second-class citizen, nor will I remain so.
Is the Senator calling for the introduction of the Bill?
I hold up a heavy weight of five folders each with individual sheets and each sheet containing an agonised plea to me about certain aspects of this Bill, especially about Irish citizens in relationships with non-EU citizens. I call on the Government to get off its backside and do something about it. I am not prepared to wait.
Will the Leader give Government time before Christmas to take the Civil Partnership Bill 2004 in my name? If we had done this in 2004, it could easily have been tested. There is a mechanism. We can refer a Bill to the Supreme Court. We are not concerned about constitutionality or protecting the family.
I greatly resent what the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said in the Dáil yesterday that the constitutional aspect involved a possible attack on the family. I say very clearly to all my colleagues in this House that granting me a minimum amount of decency, which almost every other country in Europe has granted, cannot be constituted as an attack on the family. How dare anyone say that to a decent upright citizen such as me and the many thousands of gay people who have lived in servitude for the past 60 years, of which the republican party should be thoroughly ashamed.
I strongly agree with what Senator Norris said and indicate to this House that my party, having raised the matter in the other one yesterday, will not flinch or pull back from raising it again. It will seek the maximum level of rights under our Constitution for gay people in this State. What Senator Norris said was absolutely right and he was, as always, eloquent and to the point. This is not a matter which my party will set aside or allow to fall by the wayside. We will press for those rights to be introduced next year if the Government does what it promised yesterday.
I echo what Senator Fitzgerald said about the urgency for a debate on child care. We constantly call for debates and for Ministers to come to the House. That is the way business operates in this House and I do not object to it. However, will the Leader give this matter the maximum priority in the next week? These rule changes have a serious effect, as has been outlined by Senator Fitzgerald and others in recent days. They require scrutiny and debate. I ask the Leader to give this the maximum priority in the next week or so, and I ask that the Minister come to the House to deal with this urgent matter.
Yesterday I found myself in the somewhat alarming position of agreeing with the Deputy Leader on a matter he raised in the House some weeks ago. I have become afflicted with this condition of agreeing with some Members on the Government side. I now find myself in some agreement with the Leader. I notice he was interviewed by Hot Press in the past day or two. It is reported in today’s newspapers. He said something which was quite eloquent about alcohol abuse. He said drink has taken over and that one cannot compete with it. That is what he said about social activities and the sort of country this has become.
Yesterday I heard Senator Fiona O'Malley enthuse about the ESRI report on the Celtic tiger. I got very excited about it but we need to be equally exercised by the sort of country we have created in the past ten years. We cannot allow ourselves to think we can define or characterise our success by the number of cranes on the skyline, as has often been suggested by politicians, particularly by those in Government. We have created a society in which there were 1,775 alcohol related deaths between 1995 and 2004. The report of the Health Research Board has demonstrated that overall alcohol consumption in this country is up by 17%. It pointed to the escalating pressures on health and hospital services with people being admitted with alcohol related problems and injuries. This House has a role to play in this regard. Surely it can devise imaginative approaches to address this serious issue.
I will briefly mention a constituency I know, having canvassed in it. People said there were no facilities for young people other than pubs. I see that with my daughter's generation. Drink punctuates everything in our society, including social and sporting activities. When I was growing up there were the all-Ireland football and hurling finals. Now there is the Guinness all-Ireland hurling final. It is time that organisations such as the GAA were taken to task about the manner in which they celebrate the drink culture in this society, whether unwittingly or otherwise.
As it is 1 November, I wish to raise three issues. Today BirdWatch Ireland is to begin trying to accumulate information on the wildlife in our gardens and elsewhere. Will the Leader ask the Department of Education and Science if it will give some support to schools to ensure they maximise the opportunities provided by this initiative and to get young people to look at the environment around them, including the bird life, etc.? Perhaps it will give them another interest other than sitting around drinking, which many of them do.
On 1 November many Irish people take the opportunity to give up alcohol for the month. I echo what was said by others in this regard. A few weeks ago I called for a discussion on our culture of alcohol abuse. Perhaps this is an opportune time with the publication of the new report. However, I was the chair of an Oireachtas committee which produced reports on bringing alcohol under the national drugs strategy and at the time, we pointed out that we did not need any more reports. We know the facts and we need action. We must have a discussion to identify the right action to take. The right action is different from action. It is easier to say something than to do something. As adults, we have a responsibility to be role models for the next generation.
The third issue in regard to 1 November is that it is the day after 31 October. I reiterate my request to the Leader that the animal welfare Bill be discussed in the House soon. According to what has been said on radio, we will only know today the fallout for pets and animals from what happened yesterday. I commend the emergency services on their work last night during which there were 2,000 calls to the Garda, 1,300 to the fire service and 300 to the ambulance service in Dublin alone. I commend those in the emergency services who put their lives at risk on an ongoing basis.
Debate adjourned.