Aisling Hooper didn't want to close her creche in Cabinteely, Co Dublin. And the day she had to face the parents to tell them, she was so upset that she called in colleagues to offer her - and the parents - moral support.

"The parents all said they would have paid anything to keep the creche open, but the stress was too much. You are doctor, psychologist, counsellor and running the place as well."

Most of the parents were calm, but a few wept. One single-mother in university feared that without an affordable creche place she would not be able to continue her studies. In the midst of the crisis, Aisling persevered in trying to get all 10 children placed with other creches - and, eventually, - she succeeded. But that's not the point.

Aisling's creche was a happy place, where the children had started as tiny babies and were growing into contented toddlers. She believed in continuity of care: in taking infants from the age of a few months and helping them to become secure little people ready for their first day at school. She had already succeeded in this aim with another creche, Early Days, which she continues to run successfully.

"I worried about the children when I sent out the letter that I would have to close. Moving to new creches will mean more change for them," she says.

But Aisling had no choice. Staff wages were continually escalating. Within a year, young women with basic qualifications and little experience who were happy with £140 a week were suddenly asking for £200 a week gross - if you could find them. The only way to pay them, would have been to raise the fees above £80 a week. "I could have charged more, but there is only so much that parents can afford," Aisling says.

"All the creches know what the others are paying. The girls can raise their prices because of the shortage of labour, which means that they are jumping from job to job. One girl left me when the creche up the road offered her £30 a week more. All that change is not good for the children.

"When a particular girl left, I said to her: `These children have become attached to you. How can you do this?' Finding good, caring, qualified staff is an absolute nightmare."

The only way to keep the creche going would have been to expand it to take in 20 children. She would also had to spend £20,000 to meet the regulations of the Childcare ACT 1991. She got planning permission for this from Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, but then An Bord Pleanala took the planning permission away, based on objections from neighbours who cited noise and traffic.

"These are the big issues for creches today: wages and planning," says Aisling, who is an active member of the National Children's Nurseries Association. Looking back, she thinks that even if she had not been rejected by An Bord Pleanala, escalating wages may have made it impossible for her to invest the £20,000 required to bring her premises in line with health board regulations.

"There has to be more investment put into childcare by the State. I don't know if we can stop the staffing crisis. The Government should subsidise staff incomes. We could supplement the creches by exempting them from employer's PRSI, which costs a fortune. Still, there's the problem of finding girls willing to go into childcare, which is not recognised as a true profession. Even the Government doesn't take care of the under-fives in terms of services, so why should the girls think that such work is important?

"I don't know where we are going, but we are not going in the right direction. The Government has neglected the issue for too long. It's gone past the crisis stage."

Childcare used to be seen as a mother's issue, but today fathers like Kevin Priestly are feeling just as frustrated at the lack of Government action.

Priestly, whose son Conor, his only child, was in Aisling Hooper's creche in Cabinteely, got a good feeling about it when he visited the first time. He knew Aisling through a work colleague. "I knew that Aisling was very committed," he says.

"It's only when you have children that you realise how important they are. The effect the child has on you is not something you can explain. The welfare of the child is more important to you than anything. And we felt we were putting Conor in a really good place."

Conor thrived in the creche and Kevin was delighted when he and his wife found a house to buy within walking distance of the creche - which would mean more time with Conor.

Then, on the same day that Kevin, a networks manager, and Fiona Priestly, an accountant, moved into their new house, they heard that Aisling's creche was to close. Kevin was angry - not at Aisling, but at a Government which isn't doing anything about the crisis.

"When someone of Aisling's calibre has to close, what hope does that leave? There is something wrong somewhere," says Kevin.

He thought it was unfair that Aisling was expected to invest £20,000 in her business in order to comply with the Childcare Act (which requires facilities such as child-sized toilets and sophisticated fire arrangements), without being assisted by the State.

"No one is against the enforcement of standards, but it's all one-sided. We are expecting creches to adhere to standards without helping them financially," he says.

"The childcare crisis is an election issue for men as well as women," Kevin believes. "Men are as interested in childcare because it is a very, very serious issue and it's quite likely in this current economic environment that it could be the woman who is earning more. We could be seeing Dad staying home with the children because Mom's earning more.

"There are lessons to be learned from other countries and you get the feeling no one has learned them. You have expected the powers-that-be would foresee what would happen. But other than Government reports, there is very, very little happening."

Kevin has found a new creche for Conor - Tiny Tots in Cabinteely, a good, purpose-built creche which happened to have a place. It will cost £98 a week, £18 a week more than Aisling's creche cost. Fortunately, the Priestlys can afford it, but what if they have more children?

"That's where one runs into the problems. At work, children are a topic of conversation. I heard a woman saying that if she has a second child she may have to move jobs and work from home. I think there's a very anti-female bias here that makes it the women, usually, who have to give up work."

The financial burden of childcare is another major topic amongst his friends: "If you are talking about £500 pounds a month, per child, you are getting to the stage where people will decide to size of their families based on how much money they have. For a lot of people, the cost of childcare is in or around the price of their mortgage. Having two children, brings the creche fees up to £1000 a month. So for many people there is a dilemma - is it a matter of have as many children as you want, or will money decide it?

"Most people I know have one child, and those who have two certainly have the money for it. I know a man who has four children - but he's a financial controller and can afford it."