Dr. Emily Murphy:

I thank Senator Higgins for her questions. One of her questions was about building progression pathways. That would require us to rethink training, and in particular the vocational education training system. There are examples in the Nordic countries, which for years have had a much more expansive vocational educational training system that includes social care. Their childcare models are also more integrated with an education system, which Dr. Barry mentioned. The idea that one links childcare much more with models around a primary school teaching form of care would be one way to do it. That also introduces progression and gives leadership opportunities, while at the same time gives people a sense of a skilled occupation.

Universal access is very important. It is shown to be incredibly important in terms of childcare in other countries where one can see, in particular, differences in the employment rates for lone mothers and mothers in couples. For example, Denmark, as a state, spends a much higher amount on universally accessible high-quality childcare.

There is a 14% differential in employment of lone mothers between that country and Ireland. Those are two areas where you can take different models of state expenditure on those care aspects as examples.