Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for giving me the opportunity to speak here today. I am very familiar with the work of the Donegal County Childcare Committee, as is my colleague, Deputy McConalogue. We are very fortunate to have members on that committee of such professionalism and capacity to assist us with addressing child care issues as they arise in the county. Regarding the report before us, I ask the witnesses to give us their perspective on the Scandinavian model of child care. I have been told that the Scandinavian child care model is the gold-standard, as is the case with many areas of social policy. Could we take that model and use it in Ireland or is it not as simple as that?

The recommendations in the report are entirely sensible and logical. Many years ago I worked with the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, INOU, and we examined the issue of poverty traps. The loss of a medical card and the cost of child care acted as barriers to people taking up employment. It is clear to me that the solution to such issues is an NHS-type health system, where everyone has free medical care and a very affordable child care system, like the Scandinavian model. If I were to wake up tomorrow morning to my dream Ireland, it would be something much closer to Scandinavia in terms of social policy. I ask the witnesses to give us their thoughts in that regard. I also thank the witnesses for coming here, particularly Ms Avril McMonagle and all of the team on the Donegal Country Childcare Committee, of whom we are all very proud.