Sir, – So the State is the answer to everything? That is the impression I received from reading Carl O’Brien’s article , “Investment in childcare strategy is now crucial” (Opinion, May 30th). The article trumpets the left-leaning National Economic and Social Forum’s 2005 recommendation to create a “publicly-funded, high-quality childcare system that could rival those in Scandinavia”. In other words, to place the minding of children back into the lap of the State.
However, a lot of children in Ireland used to be entrusted to the care of the State. How did this approach work out? It was terrifying for many.
I, for one, would never want children of mine subjected to the tender mercies of the State, in any decade. And nor should any discerning parent. For those who may legitimately ask: what is the alternative, as children in the care of private creches have been shown to be treated as if they were no better than animals in a factory?
The answer, in my view, is to not farm out the care of one’s children to other people who simply cannot love them as you do. Ensure that there is at least one parent (it can be either the mother or father) who is always at home to raise the children in those crucial, tender, early years especially. The help of parents’ close relatives or grandparents should also be sought-out for the minding of children.
I don’t believe that parents, even with the best of intentions, should surrender the raising of their children to outside workers who may only see those children as a job. – Yours, etc,
JOHN B REID,
Knapton Road,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – In reply to Natalie Walsh (May 31st): academic qualification is no guarantee of an adequate delivery of service in any profession. One need only look at the economic, health and other sectors of the State in the recent past and, indeed, even now.
“Professional opinion” has been taken as being correct in this country, and continues to be, without an effective analysis of the content of the opinion itself but rather in a slavish following of authority. Worryingly, “professional opinion” continues to be voiced in anticipation of such an uncritical reception. This is not to be taken as an undervaluing of education; but access to and application of education in Ireland is increasingly determined by the “market” and to serve the “market”.
It is no wonder then that in such an environment we find that young people are reduced to being a “commodity”, in some professional opinions. – Yours, etc,
CAOIMHÍN de BHAILÍS,
Roman Street, Cork.