All things to everyone - childcare is fast developing a reputation as a panacea for all the ills in the world. And as such, a simple solution to the problem of provision has been consistently promoted: more money.

If more money was put into childcare, there would be more childcare places and skills shortages could be addressed. As a result, the Celtic tiger would retain its roar and everyone would be happy. Right?

But where, in the midst of all this, is the child?

Over the last 20 years, discussion of the issue of childcare has become increasingly complex. The beginning of this year saw the launch of the National Childcare Strategy - the report from the Partnership 2000 "expert working group on childcare". There were more than 30 organisations represented on the working group, each with its own perspective on childcare. The concerns identified included legislation surrounding childcare; training and the working conditions of childcare workers; childcare provision in urban disadvantaged and rural areas; the socio-economic benefits of childcare and ensuring quality provision.

A further reflection of this complexity is the number of State departments with an involvement in childcare. The figure is anything between seven and 12, depending on whom you talk to. Many fingers in the pie, each with its specific brief - but there's a problem. None of the individual departments is informed by an over-arching policy on children. Some observers reckon that's a big hole in the middle of policy. "It's what you might call a Polo-mint structure," says Noirin Hayes, head of the school of social science at the Dublin Institute of Technology. "All the focus is from the departments out - without attention to the central issue, which is children.

"The various departments have different focuses, but in the centre we have that absence of how we conceptualise the whole. Childcare in Ireland is not a clearly defined area."

This lack of definition has drastic consequences. Ireland now has the worst childcare provision in the EU. According to Dr Pauline Conroy who lectures in social policy in University College Dublin, "we're ill-equipped, badly trained, full of talk and lacking in leadership."

Organisations such as the National Children's Nurseries Association get daily telephone calls from parents desperately seeking childcare places. Yet while an estimated 40 per cent of women working outside the home have children under the age of four, thousands of childcare places have been lost since the State began carrying out inspections of childcare facilities under the preschool regulations.

As for the provision that does exist: at around 20 per cent, and more, of the average income, the cost of childcare in Ireland is among the highest in Europe.

Ironically, in spite of their impact, the regulations themselves are considered quite weak and in need of a major review to take into account after-school care, childminders who look after fewer than three children, childcare qualifications and, perhaps most important, quality of care.

Francis Douglas is director of the BA programme in early childhood studies at University College Cork. "I am most concerned about the impetus behind the current movements in childcare," he says. "We seem to be looking at childcare provision in the context of the need to ensure the economy continues to grow. But where are the needs of children and families in all this?"

DOUGLAS IS also concerned about the quality of the provision. "Perhaps the biggest weakness in relation to childcare provision at the moment is that there is no definition of quality in the regulations. They deal with the static variables (space, safety, hygiene, staff ratios), which is important. But it is crucial to look at the dynamic: is the child stimulated, fulfilled?

"There have been positive developments in childcare. But we need to go to the next stage, which is to develop a legal framework surrounding the quality of provision."

According to Noirin Hayes, one of the fundamental issues regarding childcare in Ireland is our understanding of where the responsibility for the care of children lies.

"The care of children was always seen as a private affair between parents and children. It was the State's job to intervene only in adverse situations. But social circumstances have changed so much in recent years.

"We are desperately looking at ways to get people back into the workforce, and that chips at an underlying ideology which assumes mothers will stay at home to care for their children. "The State is encouraging both parents - directly due to a skills shortage and indirectly due to issue like rising house prices - into the workforce. Therefore, it will have to look at how to support families.

"It must be done through a whole variety of childcare initiatives, from financial supports to family-friendly policies and adequate parental leave. This would involve a rethink on child policies and rethinking of the Constitution."

So far, the thinking on childcare has been essentially reactive. Meanwhile, the problem keeps changing shape. Provision remains inadequate for the needs and the debate is driven by the needs of unions, employers and the "equality agenda".

"Childcare is in fact quite a simple issue," Hayes says. "It is about the development of a service which supports families and their children. But unless we have the child as the focus, driving the debate, and unless we develop a co-ordinated State response lead by one department, we will only perpetuate the difficulties we are now encountering."