Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is to be commended on the extension of the ECCE. Has any consideration been given to how one would extend it? Will she increase the age threshold for the second year and then bring in the first year at a younger age group or will she leave the current age threshold in place and bring it in a year earlier? There are implications for the education system in regard to it. I have spoken to primary school teachers and it has been a considerable success from that perspective and children are hitting the ground running.

I mention the issue of child care rates and refer to a particular problem for rural child care providers. They cannot survive on the income from ECCE. They need preschool, crèche and after-school children to make their operations viable because they are in small rural communities. They are at a huge disadvantage compared to larger facilities near urban centres or in places where there is no competition from other providers on the community side which do not have the same overheads. It is an issue which needs to be addressed, in particular in rural communities, because in many cases, it is the only option for people and there is no alternative.

I wish to sound a note of caution in regard to the City of Dublin VEC and the provision of service.

I am glad this has been clarified because my understanding was that the decision had been made along those lines. The difficulty is that the City of Dublin VEC, through SUSI, has been an appalling disaster and what is sad is that it has not even been prepared to hold up its hands and admit that it has made a monumental mess of it. Some people have still not received a final decision from SUSI on their grant applications for this academic year, while SUSI is now seeking grant applications for next year. We are discussing streamlining and rationalisation, which is welcome. We have discussed this issue before, dealt with some of the anomalies in the current system and have agreed that streamlining is necessary. However, I would caution against what is being considered at present, given the track record.