Ms Bernadette Orbinski Burke:

I completely understand the Senator's concerns and I really welcome her raising them. There is such a wide variety of childminders that every family should be able to find one who replicates their family setting. I completely agree that children should be cared for locally. An issue of concern to Childminding Ireland is that all the barriers and thresholds to entering into childminding would be tackled and the system made as open and inclusive as possible. With great respect to everybody who is working hard in all the various groups, there tends to be a self-selecting cohort of people involved in those groups, often people who have been through education systems and all the rest of it and are used to working around a table and so on. We need to be completely dedicated to ensuring that every single communication that goes out and every single role profile and course that is created is as open, broad and welcoming as possible and uses plain English. Sometimes people mistake the desire to professionalise with using language and terminology that can become a barrier. Professionalism is a very subjective thing. I am hugely passionate about this issue and I assure the Senator of my very best efforts to ensure the whole system is as open and inclusive as possible.