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11 February 1999 Edition

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Workers in struggle

Childcare is not child's play



     
All children have a right to quality childcare
Providing adequate childcare for the state's families is an issue that just will not go away. There are now three reports on the desks of various Dublin Government ministers dealing with the growing care crisis. However the coalition government has delayed tackling the issue for a further six months as it waits for yet another report on the childcare issue.

Last week's report comes from the Partnership 2000 Expert Working Group on Childcare. It proposes grants and tax relief for childcare providers, tax allowances for childminders, grants for training staff, funding for local level measures and improved guidelines for local authorities when granting planning permission for childcare services.

It also proposes subsidies for low income families, improvements in the Family Income Supplement payments, increased tax free allowances for lone parents and the removal of employer-paid childcare as being liable to be taxed as benefit in kind.

So how do the childcare proposals compare with other European states? British parents are currently offered a tax deductible voucher covering up to £3,000 of the costs per annum of childcare if their children are placed in a childcare facility recognised by the state. The problem in Britain as in Ireland is too few childcare places.

In the Netherlands the state set up and runs its own childcare créches but they have in recent years moved out of providing childcare places themselves and instead regulated and subsidised the childcare sector.

France has a system where the state runs day care nurseries, taking children form eight weeks old to the age of three. There is also a system of official childminders but it is very costly and therefore available only to high income earners.

In Scandinavian states such as Sweden the situation is wholly different from Ireland. The state has been heavily involved in the provisions of childcare for over 40 years. Alongside this many progressive legislative measures have been introduced such as long term maternity and paternity leave. The state pays for its extensive child care facilities through high social insurance levies, an avenue that is not popular in many conservative European economies today.

Brendan Butler, director of social policy for the employers' group IBEC, told An Phoblacht that the Scandinavian system was ``several stages ahead of where we are trying to get to''.

Whatever the context of the childcare provisions that have been promised in the 1999 budget one issue must remain central to the debate - that is the rights of the child.

Combat Poverty summarised this need in their 1998 report titled Investing in Children. It says, ``All children have a right to quality childcare'' and that ``the rights and needs of the child should be the first and foremost consideration in the development of a national childcare strategy. Such a strategy should be based on a number of guiding principles including equality, accessibility, affordability, flexibility and cultural appropriateness''.

The message then is simple. Deliver quality childcare now to all children. It is their basic right.


Things can only get better



Just when you think things cannot get any worse, the government cannot be any more incompetent or ignorant up springs something new to stretch your incredulity that little bit farther.

This week it was the new Social Welfare Bill that pushed us that little bit closer to the edge. On page 26 of the bill in section 26 we are told that: ``A social welfare inspector may, where he or she considers it necessary, be accompanied by a member of the Garda Siochana... [to] stop any vehicle... [and] question and make enquiries of any person in the vehicle''.

The reason behind the new powers for the Department of Social Welfare in to aid them in their ongoing `battle' to control welfare fraud. The fact that there already over 600 civil servants in the department working on tackling fraud and that despite all the hype by the mainstream media and opportunist politicians there were in 1998 only 150 prosecutions for fraud and only 108 individuals and 42 employers.

Throughout the 1990s successive governments have hyped up the fraud issue in social welfare payments even though the money lost in dole fraud is a fraction of the losses incurred by tax fraudsters.

However, this reality is lost on the Dublin Government who are only too willing to give more powers to the Department of Social Welfare which erode all our civil rights.

Isn't it amazing that with all the pressing legislation that needs to be implemented the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition can find time to give social welfare inspectors the power to be proxy police officers.

Rather than let you wonder what more important things the government could be legislating for Workers in Struggle has produced its own list. You can cut out and keep our list just in case you are stopped by a social welfare inspector looking for proof of employment documents. Give them the list to show just some of the better things the government could be doing with its resources paid for out of our taxes.

What the coalition should be legislating for:

(1) Give more powers to the Health and Safety Authority to enforce safety regulations on building sites. 22 people died in site accidents in 1998.

(2) Enforcing union recognition by all employers.

(3) Acting on the housing crisis and halting profiteering by developers and builders.

(4) Tackling tax fraud


Copycat times


The team here at Workers In Struggle were in shock this week when we opened the Irish Times last Friday 5 February. Emblazoned across the front page in a colour strap was a headline titled ``Rotten Apple'' dealing with the job losses at Apple in Cork.

Regular readers of An Phoblacht would have seen the previous day's paper with the same title over our article on Apple. I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Ryanair £9 million profits


The low cost, low paying airline Ryanair registered hugely increased profits for the last quarter of 1998. Ryanair made £9 million in the October to December period of 1998, and has amassed profits of £34 million in the nine months to December 1998. The company also has cash reserves of £113 million, despite having spent £48 million on deposits for new planes.

The only thing missing from this ongoing success at the airline is how much of the profits will go to the Ryanair workers?

Sale sale sale


The new year sales are over in the retail sector but the Dublin Government is proceeding with its own sell offs. ACCBank, Cablelink and ICC Bank are all to be sold off this year. Buyers are queueing up to buy into these successful enterprises.

ICC Bank released details of its 1998 profits this week. Profits surged by 31% to £21 million at the bank which is now valued at £300 million.

According to some media reports there is a ``healthy interest'' in the bank by potential suitors.

This is the same bank that in the late 1980s and early `90s could not find a buyer. Isn't it strange that it is OK for the state to subsidise worthy but not hugely profitable enterprises such as ICC who gave credit and investment to Irish businesses who were ignored by other banks. However, once these businesses begin to make profits that could be used to pay for the little things like hospital beds, school books or local authority houses the shutters come down and the state enterprise has to be sold off.

A clear message should be given to the coalition. Stop the sell offs. Keep these resources for state use and use the profits for the much needed social, health and education services.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland