asked the Minister for Health the total number of day child care centres registered in the greater Dublin area which are provided for women with family responsibilities who are obliged to go out to work because of economic necessity.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Child Care Centres.
7.
There is no statutory provision which requires the registration of day care centres.
Would the Minister not agree that where such centres exist there is a rather urgent need that they should be properly registered with the local public authorities, preferably the health authorities? Would he not further agree that it is generally desirable that such centres should be made available on a public basis for mothers working outside their homes who would have to suffer considerable inconvenience because of the absence of a facility which is quite common in all the major centres of population in these islands.
The Deputy knows that under section 65 of the Health Act, the Dublin Health Authority can give assistance to any body which provides a service of this kind, and I do not propose to register these premises. I made inquiries and found that the necessity to register them does not seem very apparent. It is not a priority on my list of new services to be provided. I have not had a sufficient number of complaints as to the poor quality of these centres to take this action.
Would the Minister not agree that a duty devolves on the authorities to provide, for example, adjacent to the various health centres throughout the country, a centre for working mothers staffed by trained child nurses, so that their children can be properly cared for during the hours they must spend outside the home? I do not think that——
We cannot have a debate on the question.
I do not think that the fact that people are doing it effectively at the moment in some areas is a reason why the Minister should wash his hands of the problem.