Professor Alan Barrett:

On the human capital dimension, child care intervention is important.

One feature in Ireland getting more international attention is the notion of our rate of jobless households. It is a slightly different issue from unemployment. Many countries have many unemployed people. The Irish figures in that respect are not that different. The 8% unemployment rate is not out of line. However, we have much higher proportion of households where nobody is working. Very often, these are households with a disabled person or lone parent. There is a real sense that part of the explanation of the high rate of lone parent joblessness is, again, the child care issue. I have mentioned a whole slew of factors as to why good quality child care interventions can be positive.