Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Listening to the debate has been interesting rather than enlightening. The previous speaker was not lobbied as ferociously as the rest of us. Not for the first time, light was originally cast on this issue in Cork. Public representatives were asked to attend a public meeting last week by the Early Years Network, an umbrella group in Cork city and county. The meeting made it obvious that the cutbacks in community child care would ensure that the people to whom the previous speaker referred would not be able to afford child care in their communities.

I do not know who stated that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, but it is a combination of the three in this instance. Statistics are being used to tell a lie. Am I allowed to say "lie"? I am, as the Acting Chairman did not stop me.

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