Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests from the Department for attending. I acknowledge that it has been a difficult period and that a great deal of work has been done by the Department in challenging circumstances. I want to come back to some of the previous points that were made. Seeking to develop a policy to provide a specific childcare service for front-line workers and not including the representative bodies of those workers in the discussions was a huge flaw. It beggars belief that we essentially got to 14 May with a scheme that was bound to fail. Dr. Lynch mentioned that the provision of childcare in the homes of front-line workers was the only option available. However, the INMO gave us documentation this morning - and I am not sure if Dr. Lynch and his colleagues have received it - which provides a breakdown of the front-line workers and the types of childcare provision of which they currently avail.

It shows that 30% of them use childminders in the childminder's home. Perhaps the Department did examine this, but it seems to me there was a possibility of continuing arrangements for children of front-line workers who had existing arrangements with childcare minders. Did the Department look into this possibility? If so, what were the barriers to utilising it?