Ms Teresa Heeney:

As already stated, the level of investment and the introduction of the wage subsidy scheme showed a tacit acceptance on the part of the Government of the precarious nature of this sector.

One of the things I am very concerned about is that we will lose staff from the sector if we are not able to maintain the entire workforce. We need our staff to be available next Monday, 29 June. We equally need them all to be available in September and we want them all to be available in 2021.

As regards the entire amount of investment that has been made to date, we in Early Childhood Ireland hope that a new agency, which is mooted in the proposed programme for Government, will gather that funding together and repurpose it in a way that ensures sustainability and builds on increased investment. There is reason to be concerned about services. The confidence of parents, operators and staff is absolutely required. There is a lot of anxiety out there at the moment, so seeing how many people arrive back on 29 June, 5 July and every subsequent week will give more confidence. However, there will still be huge issues of sustainability over the next number of months.