Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

These developments represent just some of the many initiatives currently being undertaken in the area of child care. Much has happened in respect of both the education and care aspects of early childhood provision and no doubt much more will happen in future. All this activity must be linked together to maximise its impact on the provision of the best possible service to young children and their families.

For this reason, the Government through the Cabinet committee on child care and education asked the National Children's Office to chair a high level working group to develop an integrated response to the issue of child care and education. The children's office is a cross-cutting office set up to support me in the implementation of the national children's strategy and was considered by the Government to be best placed to chair this group. The group will have due regard to the importance of a child-centred approach including the whole child perspective.

The unique aspect of this review is that it incorporates all the Departments with a role in this area within the group. Through the involvement of the National Children's Office, it safeguards the child-centred approach required and is specifically focused on dealing with the problem of integration of policy development and implementation. Progress reports were submitted in April and July 2005 to the Cabinet committee on children.

This working group will provide the Government with a range of options which will make the link between education and care and the benefits to be gained by individual children as well as by communities and society in general; increase the supply of appropriate early childhood education and care settings by developing capacity in the system; include measures which make services more affordable; and ensure quality is a design feature in the child care system.

As part of the work of the high level group, the children's office has commissioned an independent economic and cost benefit analysis of current policies and future policy options for increasing the supply and affordability of child care. This report has been received by the children's office and is currently under consideration by the group. The high level group is expected to report back to the Cabinet shortly with an integrated set of policy options. As part of its work, the group will also be considering a number of significant reports that have been published recently which make a valuable contribution to the child care debate.

The NESF report on early childhood care and education which was published earlier this week will be considered in full by the group. In this report the forum recommends a policy framework and implementation plan to cover a ten year period. However, many of the underlying principles for their proposed policy reflect those adopted by the high level working group and as such, the group will consider the NESF's recommendations as part of their examination of the options. Similarly, the National Women's Council recently launched their accessible child care model report which will also be considered by the high level group.

In devising policy, it is often easy to see what worked well in the past. It is even easy to see what is working well at present. However, it is much more difficult to create something that will properly address future needs. To do so in a sustained way calls for hard-headed realism in assessing challenges that are still emerging and the creativity to imagine the structures that will best meet them.

Everyone here today and everyone else active in the area of early childhood care and education wants to put in place the best possible service for our children and for the hard pressed parents who strive on a daily basis to juggle the commitments of work and home. Commitment is not the issue, rather it is devising the structures to deliver the best service. The very best of intentions will not deliver a service to even one child. Translating our vision and the vision of all those who have contributed to the reviews and reports outlined here today into practical, cost effective structures and processes will deliver the service children need.

The Government recognises the importance of this issue but also the complexity of getting the right mix of initiatives. It is my belief that any future framework must incorporate an integrated approach across Government. It must offer choices to families by increasing supply, diversity and affordability and it must be based on quality services as this is central to achieving the right outcomes for individual children, their families and wider society. All the parties involved in the early childhood education and care sectors have a role to play in building the right structures and processes for delivering a quality service second to none.