“Budget 2017 discriminates against every parent of young children who does not use day care. That might mean you. Contrary to what you often read, only a minority of parents put their children into day care and only a minority want to. But the child-care plans outlined in this week’s Budget are aimed exclusively at those who use day care and no-one else.

“How does the Government and Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone possibly justify this? Do they know better than parents what is good for their children? Clearly they think they do. They think your young child is better off in so-called ‘early education’ than in the daytime care of a parent, a relative, or another childminder.”

(Read the rest of David Quinn’s column from The Irish Independent here)