Mary White (Fianna Fail)

The studies to which I refer are the national child care strategy, the national children's strategy entitled Our Children — Their Lives, the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion implementation plan, the White Paper on Early Childhood Education — Ready to Learn — and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform's strategic statement. These are technical documents written by professionals involved in the area of child care. Last week, the OECD produced a report, Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth, in which the issue of child care in Ireland is examined. The Government has, therefore, been provided with a massive amount of documents and advice in respect of child care.

As part of my research, I visited crèches early in the morning when they were in the process of opening. Contrary to what Senator Ormonde stated, I was amazed by what I discovered. Perhaps I only visited the crème de la crème of these crèches but the children there receive wonderful intellectual stimulation and learn great social skills. I was an extremely shy person for many years.