Madam, - My thanks to Ann Marie Hourihane (Opinion, January 17th) for giving us a taste of the human side of the childcare debate.
The daily separation experienced by working parents and their children in Ireland is indeed a silent suffering. A journey to work, after tiny gripping fingers have been prised off a leg or arm, a tearful baby has been desperately placated, can be a devastating one for many people, not to mention the dread of a sickness-related phone call during the course of the working day.
Change is indeed necessary to ensure that Irish parents no longer have to pretend their children do not exist during working hours. We have much to learn from countries such as Norway, where a truly flexible approach, along with State-subsidised childcare, ensures that working families do not have to make these desperate choices. Our children deserve no less. - Yours, etc,
HELEN BROWNE, Moyville, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.