Towards a Better Future

Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System
for the NCCA.’ As a response to a request from the Department of Education and Science (DES),
the OECD conducted ‘an intensive review’ of early childhood policies and services in 2002. Its
report, Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in Ireland was published in July
2004. The National Economic and Social Forum (NESF) also took this issue under its remit,
conducted a consultative investigation on ECCE and issued its report, Early Childhood Care and
Education in September 2005. In 2006, the Early Years Education Policy Unit was set up, co-located,
at the time, between the DES and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children.
Contemporaneous with this cluster of initiatives focussing primarily on early childhood education,
there was a sequence of important developments on children and childcare. These included the
establishment of the National Childcare Strategy, 1991, the National Children’s Strategy, 2000, The
Children’s Act, 2009, the Children’s Ombudsman, 2003, and the Minister for Children, 2005.
This unprecedented concentration of reports, policy documents and institutional initiatives collectively
formed a framework of reference for the sector. A rationale for action, which set out principles,
policies and guidelines for action,was established. Among a range of elements addressed was the need
for co-ordination of effort; research; standards, quality and training; resourcing; database; curricular
guidelines; priority needs of minority groups; and conditions of work for ECCE personnel.
However, the implementation of policy proposals and the concrete realisation of plans for ECCE
on the ground were slow to happen. The OECD Review commented:
It is clear that ‘a national policy for the early education and care of young children
in Ireland is still in its infant stages’. The review called for ‘The urgent formulation
of a National Plan for Early Childhood Services Development,’ and for ‘A significant
increase in ministry budgets for early childhood services, so as to quickly reach the
average rate of public expenditure for OECD centres
(OECD, 2004a, pp. 6-10).
In its report of 2005, the NESF commented:
It is clear that a rich base of ideas, understandings, recommendations, research
findings and records of good international practice is available to Irish policy makers.
The research and consultative basis is very deep ...the most striking feature which
has emerged is that of a great vacuum in policy implementation, even on issues
that have been agreed by government … What is needed is a comprehensive,
co-ordinated and streamlined policy implementation process.
(NESF, 2005, pp. x – xii).
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