Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If legislative change is required, the whole House would get behind that to enact it as quickly as possible, although not in a rushed manner, of course. That is welcome. It goes to the nature of child minding. It is quite an ad hocprofession. It is not necessarily a role a person enters directly; it is something that many people fall into and it becomes a good fit because it is flexible. This comes to the crux of getting people to sign up. My late mother did it for four or five years. It fit around where she was in her professional career. There is a need to be flexible to make it attractive to people who decide it suits them because they have their own children. Let us be frank, it is generally women who are taking up these roles. Although speed is of the essence when we are designing regulation, a level of flexibility aimed at childminders will ensure that parents who avail of childminders will be able to get the best bang for their buck as well.

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