The Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has expressed concern that debates about childcare are too focused on money and not about the best interests of children.
She said the debate was "labour market, economically driven" and that would not provide policy that was in the best interests of children.
"Very rarely do I hear people talking about what is in the best interests of children or what is the best system or model that we should use for providing the best care for children," Ms Logan said.
She pointed out that the State was investing very little in early education, and said the OECD had highlighted that we were doing "very badly in that regard".
Ms Logan was speaking in Dublin yesterday at the launch of her first annual report.
The Ombudsman for Children received 177 complaints in its first year, but Ms Logan said the service was not widely promoted in the first six months as she did not have staff or an established premises. "That number has increased by almost 40 per cent in the last two months," she said.
The office can investigate actions by a public body where it appears that a child has been negatively affected. It can deal with complaints concerning children up to the age of 18, and can investigate complaints from an adult or child.
Adults made almost 86 per cent of the complaints lodged last year, and over 51 per cent of all complaints related to problems with schools. These complaints involved access to special education, school conditions and the way in which bullying complaints were handled.
Just over 16 per cent of complaints concerned health issues, particularly services for children with special needs. Other complaints concerned issues such as child protection, social welfare entitlements or custody cases.
Ms Logan said it was not her role to look at the substantive issue of, say, abuse or bullying, but to investigate if the State body in question took all the appropriate steps to deal with the complaint.
A recent case involved a young boy with motor neurone disease who was sitting his Junior Certificate mock exams. He used a laptop computer in school, but this was forbidden for his mock exams and it resulted in a complaint being made to her office.
She contacted the principal and the issue was resolved before the student sat the Junior Certificate exams.
Yesterday Ms Logan called for a change in legislation to allow her to investigate complaints from all children.
While children in detention schools can contact the office, the Ombudsman for Children cannot act on complaints about detention received from those under 18 in St Patrick's Institution or in adult prisons.
Last month, some 147 teenagers aged from 15-17 years were detained in prison.
"This creates a huge concern," she said. "Our job is to be there and promote the rights of all children, and the exclusion of children like this means that effectively there are children who are left out."
Her office is also not involved in investigating actions taken in administering laws on asylum, immigration and citizenship.
Although the Government has said her office is only precluded from investigating decisions relating to status, she said there was "a vagueness" about the legislation she was not happy with.
And she expressed concern that An Garda Síochána was excluded from her investigatory powers. Ms Logan welcomed the planned establishment of a new Garda complaints mechanism, but said children needed "specific and tailored services" when it came to investigating complaints. "The exclusion of An Garda Síochána from the Ombudsman for Children's remit seems at odds with this well-established principle."
She repeated her opposition to Antisocial Behaviour Orders (Asbos), and said they had "a huge potential to adversely affect young people who particularly need the kind of support that we haven't been giving them".
