Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy asked my view and I am very happy to give it to him. I believe the two years of ECCE should be legislated for on a statutory basis, so that every child has the right to access ECCE. Second, I believe that in areas of high capacity, the State now needs to step in and look at providing services directly. A combined model of public provision, community provision and private provision can work for the delivery of childcare everywhere. Third, the issue of staff pay is absolutely fundamental. That will require continued investment. I have more than doubled investment in childcare in the past four years. That is an important step forward but there is still a long way to go to bring us in line with other European countries in terms of what we invest in early years. Much as been achieved in four years. We now have an opportunity in the general election campaign to set out a vision for early years in the next five to ten years.

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