I have also asked a number of times for a debate on child care and we should have one in this House. It would be best if we waited until we received the report commissioned by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, on the best mechanism to provide affordable child care. Senators may not be aware that the Minister has commissioned an expert group to report to him on this by the start of the summer on different ways in which child care can be funded. This is very important as there has been a long debate about how best to fund child care and there are different views as to the optimum model for working parents.

For example, there is a question of introducing tax relief for child care or the option of extending the current early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme, which provides a subsidy for child care provision. Senator Mooney may not know that after-school child care is provided in quite a number of schools.

I am very much aware of that.

I did not interrupt the Senator. Generally, this is not done through the classroom and certainly not through teachers, as that would not be appropriate.

Parents would support teachers in calling for such care to be provided generally through parents' associations, in rooms or buildings adjacent to or part of a school's complex but not in the classroom, and with outside child care workers coming in. The Minister's task force is important. We should have a debate in the early summer, and as soon as the report on the best mechanism to support and ensure accessible and affordable child care has been handed to the Minister.

Yesterday, I welcomed the Tánaiste's announcement at the weekend of the two weeks' paid paternity leave and the extension of ECCE.

That is after the next election.

I ask for a debate on educational reform in the context of the ongoing talks on the junior cycle. I regret that there has been a failure to make further progress in those talks. Everyone, and certainly every parent, is agreed on the need to ensure greater emphasis on continuous assessment, to have an alternative approach to the old rote learning method that all of us would have been familiar with in school, and for a modernisation, reform and shake-up of the junior certificate process. Given that the vast majority of pupils happily stay in school until the leaving certificate now, the junior certificate has much less significance in the workplace than in the past. We need to seize the opportunity to make reforms and ensure the experience of the junior certificate is better for pupils.

Finally, I ask for a debate on the Middle East to take place after the Israeli elections, which are due to take place on 17 March. I am sure all of us watched with concern the address made by the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to the US Congress yesterday. President Obama was quite right in expressing his concern about the impact the address could have on the outcome of the Israeli election. It would be worthwhile for us to debate the matter and ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to come to the House to comment once we know the outcome of the election.

I rise to support Senator Paschal Mooney's call for an urgent debate to be arranged with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on childhood, child care, early education, the coherence of all of those issues and also costs. Therefore, I must disagree with my right honourable colleague on this side of the House, Senator Bacik, because we cannot wait and the issue is a matter of urgency. Why do I say so? I am aware that the Minister has established an interdepartmental working group which will report in August. Is there coherence in the sector? Is there a sense of urgency? Is there a reason to believe that there will be political will and armour in the way we invest in early-years care, after-care, and childhood and early education?

We have a document entitled Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, which is the national policy framework for children and young people, and another document, Right from the Start, the report of the expert advisory group on the early years strategy, which was put out in 2013. Recently, I have heard that the Government is about to develop an early years strategy along with a policy framework. As Senator Bacik has said, another interdepartmental group has been established to study the costs for children from birth to aged six years and after-school needs. Where is the cohesion? Do we have a full strategy for all child care, childhood development and early education? Yes, we should look at costs, but in the context of the strategies being developed and how they can cohere. In that regard, I agree with Senator Mooney that we need an urgent debate. We do not need to wait for another report to arrive. I want to know the following. What would such a report have to do with the expert advisory group on the early years strategy? Is a strategy coming? How will it relate to the later report? How does it all relate to the overall policy framework that was published by this Government in terms of better outcomes for children?