Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

As I stated, I do not believe that would achieve the goals that the Government is seeking to achieve. It is clear from all the statistics that well-off people put their children through pre-school and it is the disadvantaged who do not benefit from it.

As Senator Healy Eames stated, the return for each unit invested in early childhood care and education is significant. She quoted $12 from an American study. I have seen figures of over £7 for every £1 invested in the UK, for example.

There is still time to create as much flexibility for providers as possible. However, we cannot depart from the simple principle that it needs to be free pre-primary school education and, therefore, there will be equal access and children will be properly motivated and will have personal development at an equal level when they present at junior infants. Any junior infants teacher will tell you that he or she can almost tell a child's life plan when the child arrives in junior infants. We need to ensure that we take this crucial opportunity to provide universal free pre-school for every child in this country.