Dr. Naomi Feely:

I concur with many of the comments that Ms Byrne has made. I would reinforce the point around children's rights. The Government's commitment to invest more than €1 billion in early years care both this year and next year is significant and shows we are starting to prioritise this from a children's perspective. At a European level, we are conscious that there is a strong commitment to looking at investment in early childhood education and care as one of the key aspects of tackling child poverty. We can see that right across the EU. When we go to meetings at the EU - and the committee might be surprised to hear this - we are often held up as a good example of having a very good strategy for tackling children's issues. We have a lot of issues that need addressing but it is important to acknowledge that we have undertaken significant work in recent years to refocus the system. One of the key challenges is that we are coming from a base of a marketised mixed model approach to delivering childcare. We are starting to address that through the various initiatives under the First 5 strategy and the developments that are coming out of it. It is an important foundation that we work towards in terms of developing a public model of childcare that is available in some other European countries. We have a long way to go but we are starting to take significant steps in the right direction. Ms Ahern may wish to add something.