She described cases of children in state-provided accommodation being uprooted because there are no local facilities:

“They’ve had to relocate halfway across the country because there is no facility in the area that it should be in.”

Childcare issues, © PA Wire/PA Images

While the government has pledged to limit childcare costs to €200 per child per month and to build state-owned facilities averaging around 100 places, Meehan argued that such measures risk being “window dressing” if they fail to address deeper structural issues.

She explained, “Irrespective of putting in place childcare facilities, we need to look at the infrastructure and take a longer-term view in terms of how we want to better support families from birth through to death, not just ages one to three.”

Meehan criticised the current model, which she said forces parents into long commutes and 40-hour work weeks:

“Why are we not supporting these families so that maybe mum or dad could stay at home while the kids are small instead of buying all these anonymous buildings to farm out our one-to-three-year-olds?" said Cox.

She also emphasised the extensive amount of children who are on waiting lists for childcare.

"There's 40,000 children currently on the waiting list to get into a cresh, it's huge numbers."

Meehan suggested that schools could serve as integrated campuses for preschool through primary education, creating a more stable and community-focused solution.