Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. As most of the points have been made, I will not be repetitive; there is nothing more annoying than that.

The point has been made that there have been many initiatives over the years. We have had subvention, this scheme, the ECCE and a number of years ago we had an additional payment over and above child benefit. For a number of years parents received that payment quarterly. That was probably geared more towards stay-at-home parents. The problem has been the ad hocapproach. There has been no implementation of an early years strategy. If there was, at least we would be running to a strategy. It is very topical at the moment. I welcome that the mindset appears to be changing. In reality this is probably because it has been so topical over the past two years. Is this just patching over something? Will it be something else next year and the following year because we are not running to a strategy? I ask the witnesses to give their opinion on the fact that we have no early years strategy. Would having one be of greater benefit? This scheme might not necessarily have come about in the way it has. It might be done in conjunction with the education system with community and private providers working together.