Elections 2024: Childcare — We need grown-up decisions to achieve any kind of childcare nirvana

In Sweden you can have a child in an exceptional standard of care system from 7am until 5pm daily for less than €200 per month, about a third of the cost in Ireland, writes Cianan Brennan. However, their excellent public services are also funded by high taxes

Childhood is prioritised in Sweden as a public good. File photo

On the first night of a visit to Stockholm last month, I decided to go for a walk around the city’s old town section, or Gamla Stan.

En route, drinking in the clean air, I came across a rumpus down a side street, with blue lights flashing. Going in for a closer look, I observed a pro-Palestine demonstration of several hundred people walking in convoy behind a police escort, some of the police armed with submachine guns.