Ms Marian Quinn:

Regarding sustainability, while we hear that €75 million was released specifically for early years care, the reality is that at least half of this was under the TWSS, which is generally available to businesses across Ireland. I am not taking from that and we are very grateful to be in receipt of it, but it limits the actual money that was specifically a bailout support for early years. When it is reported that €75 million was put into early years services, it puts huge expectation on service providers to open next week and be available for parents. The reality is that some services will still have sustainability issues. If their staff are not eligible under the wage subsidy scheme the providers will have to find the full level of funding to be able to pay the wages for those staff members. If staff were on reduced wages, were out sick or took leave in January or February, then their average wage would be lower by Revenue's calculation than what their employers are going to have to pay them. Effectively, their employers will have to pay the full wage. All those things are going to add to the providers' financial outlay while there will be limitations on their incomes because they will not come back with 100% capacity for children. We will only see over time how that capacity will increase across the summer. Without a doubt, there will be sustainability issues. We are thankful for the grants and so on that are available but it has to be acknowledged that there are going to be huge challenges.