Excerpts from the report:

Ireland is at a time of change. People are questioning our values as a society, and are asking what our priorities should be in the decade ahead. Start Strong believes that young children must be a priority. They are the future of our society, and their well-being matters right now. Early childhood is a critical period in life, and high quality care and education in early childhood is essential if we are to give young children strong foundations.

This publication offers both a vision for the future of young children's care and education in Ireland and proposals for immediate actions. We have called it Children 2020: Planning Now for the Future as our proposals aim to build the quality supports and services that children born in Ireland in 2020 will need to give them a positive start in life. In responding to the current crisis in our economy, we must adopt measures that we know will contribute to the long-term well-being of our society. We believe high quality early care and education should be a priority as there is clear evidence that it brings substantial, long-term benefits for children, for the economy and for society as a whole.

Investing in young children will lay the foundations for growth in the future, both for the economy -- with high economic returns to such investment -- and for our children, whose well-being and development must be a central priority in policy-making.