Dr. Anne-Marie Brooks:

The majority of children who are expected to benefit from the measures in September are already in receipt of child care support. Some 33,000 children who will receive the universal subsidies are currently availing of child care, as are 30,000 children who are currently in receipt of the targeted programmes. We estimate an additional 7,000 children will avail of targeted supports, some of whom are already availing of child care. We do not expect there to be a capacity issue.

We are aware also from Pobal annual early years sector profile questionnaire that there are a number of vacancies across services. We will monitor uptake and demand for spaces but at present we do not envisage there will be any difficulty with that.