The Sunday Tribune informed readers last Sunday that just one in 20 of preschool care premises viewed in an eight month period last year was fully compliant with legislation.

When will your paper and others have the courage to point out the elephant in the room with regards to crèches and group care?

Few if any are compliant when it comes to meeting the emotional needs of children under three years of age.

In Sligo IT a study on childcare indicated that 25 of the 27 childcare managers interviewed said that they would not leave their children in full time day care. (Maureen O'Hara /Sligo IT – as reported in The Irish Times on 9 May 2008)

Toddlers, if they could, would point readers towards the scientific research of Cambridge Professor Michael Lamb. Disturbing anxiety levels are exhibited by them when they were placed in crèches and separated from their mums. Salivary swabs taken painlessly give instantaneous measurements of babies' stress levels.

Steve Biddulph, child therapist and author of parenting books sums up what experts are saying: "placing children under three in nurseries for long hours risks damaging their mental health, leaving them aggressive, depressed, antisocial and unable to develop close relationships in later life."

Studies by the US National Institute of Child Health Development and the UK Effective Provision of Pre-School Education revealed that something is given by loving parents in one-to-one care that cannot be substituted.

Be in no doubt but that there is an abundance of research relating to this topic internationally. Somehow as a nation we have a capacity to deny such truth.

When it comes to vulnerable children, it won't be the first time!!!

Jim Jackman,

Park Drive Court,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.