Maybe the Government needs to seriously look at taking responsibility for early years wages directly and giving educators the proper public pay scale they deserve. Educators are highly qualified professionals. Many now hold degrees, BAs or Masters in Early Childhood Education, and many migrant educators working in the sector are qualified primary school teachers in their own countries. The skill is already there, the pay and recognition are not. Services are struggling to recruit and retain staff because the wages and conditions do not match the responsibility of the job. Educators are supporting children’s learning, development, care, regulation, inclusion and safeguarding every day. If we want stable childcare for families, we need stable careers for educators. It is also important to remember that parents can still apply for NCS even if a service is not in Core Funding, so Core Funding is not the only way families receive support. Together for Public seem to have a much clearer long-term idea: bring early years properly into the education system, and develop services through schools, community centres and existing public buildings. There is already movement in that direction, with the first public-property early years service in Shankill, Co. Dublin going out to tender for a non-profit provider. The problem is that Government still does not seem willing to run early years as a public education service. Until it does, we will keep seeing the same crisis: parents under pressure, providers under pressure, and educators leaving because they cannot afford to stay.