The Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald today confirmed that a minimum standard of training in the childcare sector will be introduced by 2014, but denies it will make childcare more expensive.

A new organisation for the 22,500 childcare workers in Ireland says the government needs to invest in training or else costs will go up for parents.

The Association of Childhood Professionals (ACP) was created by people who work within the sector. They want a qualification and registration system for all early years practitioners.

ACP Chairperson Marian Quinn said "Our objective is for the early years sector to become a fully developed professional sector in its own right - similar to teaching, medicine or law. We have a strong mandate from the grassroots to progress this agenda".

"We are calling for an initial statutory minimum requirement for all childhood professionals of a FETAC level 5 Childcare qualification together with a national register - with only those who are qualified and registered being eligible for employment" she added.

The Association said other steps to progress include:

• The Early Childhood Care and Education sector Workforce Development Plan (2010) needs to be developed into a working plan and adequately resourced and implemented
• The Síolta National Quality Framework (2006) and the Aistear Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009) need to be resourced and implemented
• The childcare inspection system needs to be revised and an early years specialist needs to be included on the inspection team

Minister Fitzgerald says that past government focused on payments to parents or new buildings rather than investing in raising the quality of services. She also denies that having more qualified early childcare workers will lead to higher costs for parents.

Speaking to reporters today, the Minister said serious questions need to be asked about the sector.