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Policies on Poverty, Exclusion and Inequalitysustainable balance in how a modernised welfare state, the privatesector and voluntary organisations complement each other to ensurea solid infrastructure of care services, one that would address thereality of care in family lives and free women in particular to accessemployment opportunities of a type and in a way that does notendanger dependant household members.8.8.2 Child careThe Council regards the growth in childcare places under the EqualOpportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) of the NationalDevelopment Plan, 2000-2006, as not adequate to meet the scale ofneed. By November, 2002, it had supported 40,840 new places orjust under 20 per cent of the estimated total needed (210,000places). The Council notes that 37 per cent of the seven-year budgethas been allocated to achieve this, yet believes that the coreconstraint in the medium term continues to be the capacity of thechildcare sector to bring new places on stream. The Councilrecommends that funding should be increased when and as there isthe capacity to use it and that the lead agencies in administering theEOCP should be pro-active in ensuring growth in the number ofsuccessful applications to use its funds.The Council underlines the urgency that attaches to this issue. Itbelieves that parents are currently paying too high a price, inemotional and health terms as well as financial, for the absence inthis country of the types of services which are widely available inother advanced societies. The Council would like to see high qualitychild-care facilities for pre-school children becoming availableacross the nation within a realistic timescale and welcomes thechallenge in the targets set at the Barcelona European Council(2002). It believes that here, as in other fields, the weakness of localgovernment in Ireland poorly positioned the country to respondwith the decisiveness and effectiveness that profound social changerequired.The Council welcomes the triple objectives of the EOCP, viz. toimprove the quality of childcare, to maintain and increase the387