Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

My Department and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs are examining current levels of provision. For instance, the national child care investment programme, NCIP, supports approximately 15,800 after-school places and there are more than 37,000 childminding places. There is a total of 75,000 places in all, given the variety of ways in which after-school care, for example, can be provided. The Early Start and new preschool programmes have been valuable for parents.

I have listened to debates on child care for at least 20 years. As a country, we must aspire to good models that provide preschool and after-school care in particular. Some models are in place and the Government has created a full Department of children, one responsibility of which is to address this issue, given its importance to parents. Tomorrow morning, I will launch a report on child poverty indicators via the ESRI. This issue is one of the strongest indicators. If someone is parenting on his or her own and does not have an opportunity early enough to return to education or training and, from there, move on to work, that person's chances of being fully financially independent are much reduced.

See this speech in context