The Government has been urged to consider using older people who have raised families to staff childcare centres run by the State.
Mrs Eileen Proctor, a founder member of the National Association of Widows in Ireland, said there were plenty of older people who could be employed to look after children "if the Government wants to establish State childcare facilities".
She told a seminar organised by the association's Dublin branch that people who had already raised children would be eminently suitable for such a task.
The association's national PRO, Ms Sheila Conroy, said childcare was a priority issue for the Commission on the Status of Women, of which she was a member, in the 1970s.
The commission took the view that said childcare facilities should be available, to the community at large, but while its other recommendations were implemented, this was the one issue which had not. She said paying for childcare through tax breaks was not a solution to the problem as it would not be of equal benefit to all. Childcare should be available free to all who needed it, including lone parents and mothers working in the home "who need free time to do the household shopping or whatever".
She believed such a service could be paid for by the social partners - the Government, employers and trade unions. "The social partners should be involved in creating proper childcare facilities throughout this country," she added.
The Labour TD, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said there was an onus on employers to provide for childcare.
He criticised employers who were "happy to provide membership of golf clubs for executives" but reluctant to assist in providing adequate childcare facilities for workers.
