It hasn't made the big bold type in many manifestos, and seasoned political observers might dismiss its significance in the current local election campaign. Yet if there is one issue that some candidates are already struck by, it is the strength of feeling on some doorsteps about childcare.
Certainly, the Minister of State for Health and Children, Mr Frank Fahey, will be under no illusions after his experience at a stormy meeting in Galway last week.
"Let me answer . . . This is a very hostile audience," Mr Fahey argued at one point in Murray's Salthill Hotel, during several heated exchanges with parents - both male and female - about the city's childminding "crisis".
Mirroring similar gatherings in Dublin in recent months, the Galway meeting was hosted by the local branch of the National Childrens' Nurseries Association (NCNA).
The aim was to air concern about the impact of the "new" regulations - "new" in the sense that the 1991 Childcare Act has only recently been implemented.
To meet statutory requirements on space and staffing ratios, some creches have had to inform parents of increased prices to make ends meet.
The charges will still be below the going rate in Dublin, where the full impact of a booming economy is reflected in what this newspaper recently referred to as the "childcare nightmare".
However, what worried many of the middle class parents at last week's meeting was the threatened closure of several creches in Galway city, due to a Western Health Board (WHB) decision to implement statutory regulations at a time when minders are also in short supply.
Addressing the several hundred present, Mr Alex Maclean, the WHB's childcare manager for Galway, tried to calm the atmosphere at the outset by putting the situation in context. The regulations were drawn up in co-operation with childcare associations and were aimed at the health and safety of children, he said.
However, the health board intended to take a flexible approach and hoped to improve standards, where necessary, through "persuasion and acceptance", he stressed.
"The WHB hasn't closed any pre-school service down, it hasn't gone to court, and the chief executive officer, Dr Sheelah Ryan, has assured health board members that this would be the last option," Mr Maclean added.
Mr Fahey, who was invited along with other public representatives to the gathering, said that he had been very concerned, when he was appointed almost two years ago, at the failure to implement the 1991 Childcare Act. Part of the problem was lack of resources among the health boards, he said.
He was very conscious - and now concerned - about the fact that this could result in an increase in costs.
Prices should not be going up "drastically", he said - a point that was greeted with derision and laughter from the attendance. The Government was putting a considerable amount of money into providing further facilities, as it recognised that there was a shortage, he added.
"Over 200 creches and Montessori schools have registered with the WHB and a considerable number haven't - and are outside the law," the Minister of State warned.
"By and large," he added, "there is a very high standard of care here, but space regulations and staff ratios are the two issues that have caused problems."
The Minister echoed Mr Maclean in emphasising flexibility. The "formula" agreed with certain creches was that numbers would be reduced gradually, as older children left to move on to school.
Significantly, he also said that "four to five" new community creches would be opened in the coming months.
It was when the Minister of State pointed out that the Government was committed to introducing tax relief for childcare in the next Budget that he got one of the strongest reactions.
"Too late, too late," came loud cries from the attendance.
The Minister of State referred to the recent report by the expert working group on childcare, which had been referred to an inter-departmental committee. Again, he roused the ire of several people present.
Asked why it had not been introduced in the last Budget, he said that he was "very disappointed" that the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, hadn't allowed for it. However, he laid the blame on a "strong lobby" representing women in the home.
This was a "complicating factor", Mr Fahey said. "What is complicated about it? There can be measures for them too," one man responded, but he was drowned out by the row.
When a Labour candidate in the forthcoming local elections, Mr Marc O Riain, made further criticism of the Government's approach, Mr Fahey asked "why Ruairi Quinn had sat on his hands" in the last administration. This Government had given almost £5 million this year to the sector, he said.
A theatre nurse in University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) outlined her difficulties to the Minister - if fees were to go up, she would be better off quitting work. She was no beneficiary of the "tiger economy", she pointed out. Clearly shaken, Mr Fahey said he had no quick answer for the price increase.
The meeting was inconclusive, but the NCNA gave some interesting statistics. It quoted ESRI projections in relation to a 25 per cent employment increase, and said that IBEC, the employers' organisation, estimated that 40,000 more childcare places would be needed nationally in the next decade, given that a high percentage of the increased workforce would be women.
There was one strong plea Mr Fahey - to suspend implementation of the regulations until tax relief is introduced. Not surprisingly, it was a commitment he could not give.
There were only brief references to the low incomes of many overworked childcare workers, and the responsibility of employers to become more "child-friendly" if they really want to keep their trained staff.
And no reference to the reality that many of the 166 elected representatives to the Dail - never mind the 1,627 local authority members due to be elected on June 11th - may have come from a generation dependent on the political wife running the home, with perhaps the benefit of the extended family.