Dr. Fergal Lynch:

We have worked very hard to increase the number of places and, in four years, the total number has increased from 103,000 to 213,000. We are encouraging this by including capital grants to support it and the private sector is also involved. Availability in different regions and for different age groups is a factor too and we are working hard with providers and Pobal to assist as much as we can. The underspends in 2017, while unsatisfactory and frustrating for everybody, were completely reversed in 2018 when we had a full outturn of expenditure and a full uptake of the schemes throughout the system. We expect the same in 2019.