Ms Laura McGarrigle:

As alluded to by Ms McNally, the Bill provides an enabling framework to allow us to have different sponsor agreements with different bodies depending on the specific issue we are addressing. Generally speaking, the intention is that the funds to support the sponsor agreements are within the overall budget for the affordable child care scheme. In other words, if it is decided that a child should be getting 40 hours of child care a week under these agreements rather than, say, 15 hours, that would be funded. That subsidy would be provided through the affordable child care scheme budget. That said, we will need to work out the sponsor agreement with each agency because there could be nuances within that depending on whether an agency is also contributing something towards the child care cost.