Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the questions that I have asked the Minister before, and I asked the ECI earlier, concerned the 15% of providers who did not sign up for the temporary wage scheme. When I last asked my question the witnesses said they would look into it and try to dig down into it. Do they have an insight into why the 15% of providers did not sign up? I keep asking because it is important for us to understand where the providers are coming from in terms of set up so that the information can feed into any financial decisions or models in the future. The matter is concerning. What are the plans for the 15%? Do they plan to close? Any loss of providers would put huge pressure on the system and on parents. If 15% of providers were to close then that would be catastrophic so any information on that would be really useful.

The points about consultation have been raised quite a bit so I shall leave them. It is good to see that a committee is in place now. There has been a lot of talk about parents leaving the system but staff leaving the system is another concern. There is a high proportion of staff from outside of the country who may have gone home at this time and may not come back. There may also be staff seeking other employment. Do we have any indication of staff leaving the sector? Has the issue come up through the committee? What is being done about that?