Ms Teresa Heeney:

A monitoring mechanism is already in place for the fees that are being charged. All operators that deliver the free preschool year - it is virtually every operator in the country - must submit a fees policy to their local authority child-care committee. Therefore, it is very easy to develop a monitoring mechanism to take a point of view about fees because it is already gathered and available. I have no doubt that some monitoring will be put in place. Speaking on behalf of providers if something were to be introduced, somewhere along this whole plan the cost of providing child care has to be increased because it cannot continue with the current level of subsidy that is delivering the story that Ms Hilliard is describing.