Mr. Damien Peelo:

It is an incredibly important issue. As a parent who has suffered from the anxiety of trying to get to the crèche before it closes, arriving to find the child waiting with all the gear and I am the last parent to arrive and getting a little tick because I am late, I know the stress of the distance to travel across the city with traffic. That creates huge anxiety. One of the issues is the accessibility of the crèches and whether they are closer to work. I accept that if it is closer to one parent's area, it is usually that parent who picks up and the other parent does not get that interaction. If it is too far away, there are all those other issues. It is about the flexibility of crèches being available beyond the 6.30 p.m. shut-off, when one's child is dressed and ready to go because every other child is leaving and the parent is late. That creates its own stress for the child and for the parents.

I agree with the Deputy about extending the school transport scheme to look at this. It would be very interesting. As Ms Byrne said, many crèches have had to offer pick-up from school as part of their service. They do not tend to drop home. The pick-up from schools and its extension and seeing this as an educational support as well as a childcare support would be very interesting to take on. I am in the situation where there are two parents and we have transport. One has to think of those in rural areas and one-parent families who do not have access to transport and how this is going to be met. Accessibility is extremely important in this and we need to have further discussions on it.