Mr. Paul Bell:

That is a very simplistic way of addressing the hurt that has affected healthcare workers. The Deputy's previous question was more relevant. If we were to have this issue again, the same things would happen because the Government failed to join the dots. We want healthcare workers, who are predominantly female in certain sectors of the health service, to be in the service and yet we did not help them. For the life of me I cannot understand this because we said that childcare is essential to support health workers but maybe the Government did not understand what it needed to do to provide that childcare cover.

The other point I want to make is that when the informal care, such as grandparents, relations or friends caring for children, was taken away there was no offer to fund or subvent the cost of childcare. It is a complex issue but was made more complex by a lack of political will.