The Flannery family are very brave - they have two children and both parents are working. They pay £900 (€1,144) per month for their children to be cared for in a creche - equivalent to the repayments on a £150,000 mortgage.

On weekdays, Ms Edel Flannery drops her boys, Conor (three) and Eamonn (one), to the Tiny Tots creche in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, at 7.30 a.m. on her way to work at AIB. Her husband, Paul, works shifts in a printing company and is sometimes free to bring the boys in a little later. Ms Flannery's main gripe is not childcare costs but that creche places are so hard to find. "Creche places are like golddust and, when you have one, you do everything you can to keep it."

The Flannerys previously lost a creche place when a creche with which they were very happy had to close down because of problems with planning permission. Eamonn was taken in by Tiny Tots on a part-time basis between the ages of four months and eight months. Since then, he has been full-time and both children are usually collected around 6 p.m. So what are the Flannerys hoping for from next week's Budget? Ms Flannery is more concerned with provision than costs. "In an ideal world, it would be nice to see the costs for parents being addressed but I think we need to see a serious financial boost for the whole system that will create more places."

Ms Flannery is tired of hearing announcements and wants to see the tangible results. "It's time for a genuine, visible investment in all of our children."

To keep the boys' places in the creche, their parents have to pay the full weekly rate, even on weeks when they might be able to keep them at home. This is common practice in most creches but it means that Ms Flannery is unable to avail of family-friendly policies at work. "There is no flexibility because we need to pay the creche no matter what. I could take three months parental leave from AIB but we can't afford to hold the places for that long."

She does not want the debate to focus on parents complaining about childcare costs. She would like to see the debate move forward to examine possible solutions. "Surely at this stage we can look around and see how other countries deal with childcare needs and have our pick of what model is working best. It's no good just allocating money without having a strategy."