Throughout the State, hundreds of thousands of parents struggle with the crisis in the child care system. Parents, and particularly mothers, are being blocked from returning to work. Working families are being financially crippled because of the lack of affordable and accessible child care. The National Women's Council of Ireland rightly argues this is one of the biggest obstacles to women's equal participation in society.

The average cost of child care throughout the State is €310 per week per child, and in Dublin it is even higher. One survey conducted last year found that having two children in child care in many parts of Dublin would cost a family €27,000 per year. Almost half the workforce earns less than this. How could any parent on the median income afford child care at these prices? How could any parent on social welfare seeking part-time work afford this? At these prices, child care workers, nurses, special needs assistants and retail workers could not afford child care. I could go on.

In its 2011 election manifesto, the Tánaiste's party promised to develop a comprehensive national preschool service if elected to government. It broke that promise, just like it broke its promise to protect child benefit and not to cut the one-parent family payment until the Tánaiste introduced what she called a Scandinavian-style child care system. Does the Tánaiste have something against parents? Why has she broken every single promise she made on the issue of child care since 2011? Why does she now, in banner headlines this morning, insult people with more promises that she will surely break?

I am very pleased as leader of the Labour Party-----

For the time being.

-----to have introduced a €5 increase in this year's budget for child benefit.

The Tánaiste does not think much of what Deputy Eamon Gilmore did.

I am even more pleased that a significant number of increases have been targeted specifically at lone parents on transitional payments.

That is an unsteady boat.

The means test and the assessment for family income supplement have been eased significantly. The incomes of lone parents and the parents described by the Deputy working part-time have been very significantly increased over the past year-----

The Tánaiste has been in government since 2011, not since last year.

-----and will be further increased this year through a significant expansion of the family income supplement to bring up the earnings of such a family significantly.

With regard to child care, we have had a very detailed examination over the past year, spearheaded by a number of our Deputies who have taken a particular interest in this subject, such as Deputies Arthur Spring and Ciara Conway, to address what is a very pressing issue for society of how we expand resources for families, specifically with regard to child care. I am happy to say that we have proposed over the life of the next Government to improve, as we have been doing over the life of this Government, in very difficult straitened financial circumstances in the first three years, to set out to improve incomes for families, tax reductions for families and, specifically, to improve the provision of child care.

The Government has doubled child poverty.

Furthermore, for families on low incomes we have community-based child care, with which Deputy McDonald may not be familiar, but which is an extremely important facility-----

Is the Tánaiste familiar with it?

-----for families on low incomes getting community-based child care throughout the country. Not only this, but we are improving regulation, standards and the qualification levels of the people who work in child care. All of this is designed to achieve a much improved provision of child care in this country.

It is still inaccessible.

I am happy to say that next September we will have the introduction of the first child care paternity leave for men, introduced on a modest scale as resources allow for two weeks, and we hope over the life of the next Government to improve and expand this. We also hope, as I said in the course of the budget debate, to expand the further provision of paid parental care in the first year of the life of the child. On child care, notwithstanding that we inherited an extremely difficult financial situation, and notwithstanding that we now have the economy coming into recovery, we devoted in the budget resources not just to older people and pensioners, but we have specifically devoted additional resources to education and child care.

Less than the cuts that were made.

I am very proud that the Government of the Labour Party and Fine Gael has been able to achieve that.

Having doubled child poverty.

With the greatest of respect to the Tánaiste, I must question her judgment if she is proud of the record of the Labour Party, whatever about Fine Gael, in the Government in respect of child care.

We expected what we have got from Fine Gael. The Fine Gael Party is the Fine Gael Party. There are different expectations for the Labour Party, however, and they have been shattered. I remind the Tánaiste that she cut child benefit.

And we restored it.

She cut child benefit and thereby broke the promise her party made to voters.

Order, please. None of us can hear what is being said. I call on Deputy McDonald to continue.

The Labour Party promised to develop a comprehensive preschool service. There is no sign of that.

We are doing it.

The Tánaiste and her party promised repeatedly not to cut lone parent payments until a Scandinavian-style child care system was in place. They did not give a damn about that promise. In fact, the Labour Party in government has broken every single promise it made. The decisions and actions taken by the Labour Party and Fine Gael, of which the Tánaiste is so proud, have hurt families and children and continue to hurt them.

To add insult to injury, the Tánaiste this morning announced an uncosted back-of-the-envelope election gimmick in an attempt to curry favour with the very families her party has failed over the past five years. The Labour Party's banner-headline initiative is not properly costed. Will the Tánaiste tell us where the costings for the proposal are and their source? Is she prepared to put them on the record of the Dáil for scrutiny, not just by parliamentarians but by the public? In all fairness, how could anybody believe anything the Tánaiste has to say on pretty much any subject but, in particular, on the issue of child care when, time and again, she brazenly broke the promises her party made? Yet she stands up and says to the public she is proud of that record.

Will Deputy McDonald tell me why anybody would believe Sinn Féin when Gerry Adams does not even know whether he is the leader of the IRA but does know Slab Murphy is a good republican? Just tell me that, Deputy.

What does that have to do with child care?

Let me tell you, Deputy, the moral integrity of people has a great deal to do with child care and the question of whose care our children should be put in. Gerry Adams is a man who cannot even fess up in regard to what happened with certain murders, but Deputy McDonald is asking us to trust her party. The answer is, "No, we do not."

However, let us come back to the issue at hand. The provision of additional child care support for families in Ireland is a crucial political issue and one that will be addressed, I expect, in the forthcoming election by all political parties. The Labour Party has had an extensive period of consultation on the matter, with meetings throughout the country over the past year. Deputies opposite might not have attended them; their party has rallies, as we know. We have had detailed and very well attended meetings right around the country to discuss our child care proposals. We met different sections of the public, people who work in child care and people who are experts in the area. We have also talked extensively to parents.

What parents want, and it will take a considerable period of time to do it, is to have a child care system that is well regulated. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, has focused on that over the past two years because the big concern for parents is the quality of regulation. In addition, I have provided for a second successive increase in child benefit. Deputies opposite can sneer at that, but their Minister in the North presides over a weekly child benefit rate of €20.70. In fact, for families in Northern Ireland who earn over a certain level, there is no child benefit at all. That is what Sinn Féin has achieved after ten years in government in the North.

Order, please. The Tánaiste has the floor.

This year, my party in government has employed an extra 1,400 teachers at primary, secondary and SNA level.

Where are the costings for the proposals announced by the Tánaiste's party today?

We have also extended SNA preschool support, as asked for by parents, to children with special needs. That is a real breakthrough in terms of preschool policy development in Ireland. Deputy McDonald should be gracious enough to acknowledge it.

The Tánaiste should be gracious enough to answer my question and provide costings.

The Sinn Féin Minister in the North, Mr. John O'Dowd, said recently that those wanting to enter the teaching profession should give "very, very careful consideration" to their choice. Prospective teachers should be aware, he said, that they "may not be able to achieve a post within teaching in this society". The society he refers to is Northern Ireland. This year, we are hiring 2,400 teachers and SNAs and providing for additional child care resources through child benefit. Sinn Féin in the North is like an empty vessel, with people being advised not even to enter the profession.

Order, please. It is not fair to the Technical Group for other Deputies to use up its allocated time. I have called Deputy Stephen Donnelly.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I asked the Tánaiste a question in respect of costings and the source of those costings in respect of her announcement today. I can only surmise that there are no costings and no credible source for any costing.

I will answer that.

We are over time but I will allow the Tánaiste to respond briefly.

All our costings will be published with our manifesto whenever the election is announced.

Where did you get the costings from?

There are no costings.

They will be published in detail and will be available for any level of scrutiny. We will publish a full, costed manifesto, unlike the fantasy manifestos of some I could name and that we have seen in the past. Our proposals will be available for experts to examine as they wish.

I wish to state for the record that the Labour Party's initiative is not costed. That should be recorded.

I have called Deputy Donnelly. Deputies should maintain order and allow him to speak.