John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The reality was that some €13 million to €14 million, that is, between 2% and 3% of the total expenditure, comprised the annual cost of meeting our EU obligation. Given the contribution such workers made to the Exchequer and the economy, Fine Gael's approach was unreasonable.

The introduction of the ECCE has been widely welcomed across the sector, including by Barnardos and the other major national child care organisations. Unfortunately, rather than supporting the first major intervention by the State in ECCE, the Opposition parties, particularly Fine Gael, appear to be bent on its destruction. Once again, rather than welcoming a positive step forward, their first response to a new policy is to oppose it and then look for reasons for doing so. The scheme was barely announced when Deputy Enright rubbished it and asked how we would meet the ambitious targets that have been set.

See this speech in context