Former taoiseach John Bruton has called for increased support for preschool education, saying such a measures may prove to be “the most important economic stimulus” of all.

In a speech last night in which he warned that solving Europe’s unemployment problem was essential to the euro’s survival, Mr Bruton said it was essential to give every educational advantage to small children, regardless of family income. “That is not just a matter of social justice, although it certainly is that, it is a matter of pragmatic self-interest for today’s, eventually to be retired, workforce and electorate,” he told a dinner hosted by Institute of Chartered Accountants.

“In fact, it may be before children go to school at all that the biggest improvements in intellectual ability can be achieved.”

Mr Bruton cited a World Bank study on Vietnam which said that very small children who see their parents for just one hour a day may lose out on mental development no matter how well off they were materially. “If these World Bank views about intellectual development are true, they deserve an urgent response from parents, creches, and government at all levels here in Europe,” he said.

“If we are going to depend on a smaller number of children to support our welfare systems over the next 40 years, we must do everything we can now, to enhance their earning capacity, especially by ensuring that they have a happy and stimulating childhood, from the earliest age.”