That's because the State sector is brutal at delivering services so they outsource to the Private Sector.Agreed, and that is what happened in my own family but is it right? Look at other countries such as Sweden where there is a better state funded child care and paternity leave system. What we have in Ireland is a dated, half way house, that doesn't work
If we has a 'proper' service it would be heavily unionised, dysfunctional, inefficient, really expensive and Fintan O'Toole would have to clone himself to harvest enough cossetted wealthy socialist rage to fill a new supplement in the Irish Times writing about how the Government were failing the children of Ireland.
The Swedes, along with just about every other country in Northern Europe, have less incompetent Public Services.