Parental leave for the first year of a child’s life is crucial to address the practice of “six-month-old babies being dropped in their PJs to the creche at 6.45 every morning, where they are going to remain all day”, say children’s rights advocates.

A new initiative to help parents on welfare get back to work will make it more financially worthwhile to take up employment by letting them keep some state supports.

Almost nothing has changed since the shocking PrimeTime report detailing mistreatment in crèches was broadcast 12 months ago, according to early education group Start Strong.

A family with two children in childcare face paying out €16,500 a year — a cost that may stop people from taking up employment, according to a report.

THE dangers of further cuts to school staffing and budgets will be worsened by the inability of families to make up the shortfalls, a parents’ leader has warned.

PLAYING hide-and-seek with dinosaurs and having a castle with stairs to the clouds were among the imaginative ideas dreamed up by youngsters to make the perfect playschool.