VICTORIA WHITE: Our children don’t need corporate creches — all they need is love

BABIES shouldn’t go to creches.Nor should toddlers. Three-year-olds shouldn’t go to creche full-time. It’s as simple as that.

I am shaking with rage at the cruelty inflicted on the precious children in Giraffe, Belarmine, Links, Malahide and Little Harvard, Rathnew in Tuesday’s Prime Time on RTÉ. My heart goes out to the parents who trusted these creches with their beloved children.

But I disagree that creches can be sorted by more inspection, more qualifications or even more funding. Nine years ago in the UK the BBC did a similar undercover investigation of creches which also showed children being mistreated. It is clear that the lack of a strong emotional bond between individual carers and individual children in corporate creches creates an environment favourable to child welfare abuses.