Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

——as to whether they are prepared to pay for the future generations through their taxes and give children aged up to six years of age the best possible start in life. That is what I want.

If it came down to me — I will be speaking in detail on the Adjournment tonight on the increasing evidence of the correlation of the role of music on the development of the brain — I would invest heavily in developing responses to the research emerging. From the perspective of the Department of Finance a euro invested in children aged up to six would involve a great saving at a later stage in terms of expenditure by the Departments of Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The benefit of such investment has yet to be realised by those who hold the purse strings.

The unemployment statistics for County Donegal offered——