Mr. Darragh O'Connor:

Very briefly, the EWSS needs to be refined. However, it is interesting and SIPTU has advocated for it. Were the Government to bring in a model, like a primary school model where the State pays the wages, we would need a wage scale to go along with it to make sure that educators were properly rewarded. The way to fix the sector is to support it and to build capacity within the services, rather the subsidy approach. That could end up a little like the housing assistance payment, HAP, where subsidies are chasing rents the whole time. The same could happen within the early years sector.