Ms Bernie McNally:

We fund 30 city and county childcare committees throughout the country. They are a source of support for parents and providers. Clearly, the Dublin committees are very busy and parents might not get the same level of support, but that service exists. There is also a website, www.myccc.ie, that parents can visit to get their local committee's contact details. We appreciate that there are capacity issues, but the amount of investment that has gone into early learning care and school-age childcare in recent years is encouraging growth in the market. We are seeing that, and we hope to see further expansion. Deputy Aylward might have asked a question on this matter. For every service that closed down last year, approximately two and a half opened with five or six times the number of children. The number of services is increasing constantly, as is their size. Four years ago, the average service had 33 children. Now, it has 44 children.