Mr. Dónall Geoghegan:

I suppose we are familiar with the media narrative around this. Sometimes it tends towards a mammies war between those who stay at home and those who are working outside the home. Perhaps that does not really capture the true dilemmas facing most parents. Most parents mix and match it. In some cases they send their children to a formal child care setting some of the time. At other times care will involve the grandmother or grandfather. Sometimes care is provided by a local childminder and sometimes it involves neighbours etc. That is the reality for most parents.

Many parents do not have much choice, especially those on lower incomes. They find it rather difficult to access quality child care in child care settings and childminders. We see the new scheme as playing a role. It is the start of something rather than an end point. It is the start of helping parents to be able to better afford quality child care in child care settings and registered childminders, thus taking some of the burden from parents of having to fill in themselves or ask others to fill in. In some cases, parents do not like asking their own parents to help out. It will bring about greater choice and balance for parents. There are many other issues that could bring us down the rabbit hole of trying to pit parents against each other, something perhaps not altogether useful to the advancement of the child's best interests.