Ms Tanya Ward:

It is obviously relying on a privatised model trying to address something that is a public good. That is the truth of it. We probably need to take a fresh look at how we develop supply. I know that is something the Department is looking at because there has been a big increase in the number of young children. It is a bit harder to predict what the uptake will be, unlike primary school, for example, because of the way the Department of education's plans are based on the number of children on child benefit. While some parents may go back to work, some may not. They may only want to drop the child in for a couple of hours a day or week. There needs to be a little bit more flexibility in the options. There is no doubt that there needs to be capital investment in creating settings. That is true. Looking at the privatised model and how the developers work needs to be reviewed alongside that.

A particular option the State could explore is through the Department of education and its development of the education and training boards, ETBs. Ireland is quite different from other countries. The local municipality or local council would actually control and manage education. The Department of education has a ready-made structure to develop facilities in educational settings, which could be relied upon to develop new settings. The Government could commission and build and then other providers could provide the early years services. We hope all of those things could be explored going forward to deal with the supply issue.