Ms Frances Byrne:

I welcome Deputy Murnane O'Connor's recognition of the difficulties and complexities. It is very important that elected representatives are aware of this. One of the advantages of the Irish system is that people still live in their communities and witness it. Speaking exclusively about childcare provision, there is a straightforward answer but it is not simple. We remain the lowest investor in the OECD in early years. There are very complex issues to be sorted out, of course, and I do not mean to be disrespectful to other countries or ourselves when I say this but other countries have shown us that it is not rocket science if we take the right approaches and prioritise children. What attracts us all to the Scandinavian model is that it gets the balance between universal and targeted correct.

Early Childhood Ireland regrets some of the negativity about the national childcare scheme even though it is entirely understandable. It does have the beginnings of the solutions to the problem. We need buy-in throughout society, exactly as Ms Smith said. Not to be cynical, and I know Ms Smith was not for one minute being cynical, but the children of today are paying for the pensions of tomorrow. They are the taxpayers of tomorrow. Everybody pays tax, whether they are disadvantaged or well off. We need to have this buy-in. This is what works in Scandinavian countries. People know the safety net is there for everybody. Childcare is important and seen as a part of it. If all children are availing of it and all families are paying into it and benefitting from it then it is not controversial. Here, we are stuck in the mindset of speaking about, quite understandably, means testing and disadvantage. It is very hard to grapple with. Other countries have solved these problems or are solving them. We need to look to them.

For Early Childhood Ireland the key piece is the combination of universal and targeted measures so that every child has rights and all of us collectively as a society invest in them. For the children the Deputy described so eloquently, who from time to time or throughout their childhood need extra support, it must be there for them. Because of where we are starting in Ireland it will be a difficult journey. With the announcements for budget 2022, provided that we get the complexities right, we are starting to move in the right direction and this is very welcome.