Latest creche fiasco gives us an opportunity to finally get things right

THANK you Prime Time, for a powerful and brilliant piece of public service broadcasting.

The programme on childcare shocked us all to the core, I think. It exposed not just bad but shameful practice, and opened a lot of eyes to some of the fault lines in our continuing attitude to children.

Only a few short years ago, the Ryan Report, in its comprehensive descriptions of how institutions were run and the abuse of children facilitated, detailed what was left in the bank accounts of some of the institutions after they were closed down. What emerged was the stark fact that institutions were run at a profit – and that profit was achieved by starving children and refusing to clothe them properly. In turn, that was allowed to happen by a system of inspection that turned a blind eye to what was going on.