Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The immediate issue is primarily the allocation of resources and also working through what we mean by public health model and how we integrate it with the school-based model for children from the age of four and a half or four years upwards. That is the big question. We then have to ask about the funding implications of that and identify how much would it cost and how we would plan, in terms of the overall allocation of resources, to give effect to it. That is work that can be done. It could usefully be done by an Oireachtas committee in respect of childcare, just like we did in terms of healthcare and other areas in the past. It needs a fairly detailed analysis and engagement with all of the stakeholders in the area of childcare.

We can create legal rights and constitutional rights, but, fundamentally, the real meat is in the provision of resources, with structures and systems that give the desired outcome of access to childcare places for everybody who requires it.

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