Ms Marie Daly:

Research shows that 60% of those in the childcare sector are paid less than the living wage. A bigger thing that has hit the sector in the last number of years is the introduction of special needs assistants in schools, which we have no objection to, but all of these people are leaving the childcare sector because they are starting at something like €33,000 per year, which is way above what childcare workers get. They have all the summer off, finish work at 4 o'clock and do not have the burden of responsibility or the paperwork to carry out that childcare professionals have.