Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----an idea on how it will address it?

The issue of subvention was raised quite a lot at our outreach meetings. On the concept that funding should follow the child, there is the issue with private and community child care where in many rural areas, parents may not be in a position to be facilitated by a community crèche. Children from disadvantaged areas are not always disadvantaged and vice versa. It has come up that the funding should follow the child.

I presume Síolta and Aistear have been discussed. Has the Department discussed the training needs, the types of modules and the timeframe in which they should be rolled out because there seems to be an issue with that? Do the officials know whether there will be an increase in investment in child care? Do they know what kind of figure we are talking about? Have they been given a figure? They must appreciate that it is difficult for us to make strong recommendations in the report when we do not know how much we are talking about.

Dr. Lynch referred as well to the fact that the Department is examining the issue of after-school services. Would these include transport to and from the school because it could also be an issue for parents to get their children from the school to the aftercare?

Has the interdepartmental working group on child care been taking account of the issues we are raising in the committee sessions?