Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Department's flagship service is the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme for seasonal services but it is barely sustainable for providers. If childcare closes down in a village or town, that learning in the community is lost. I have a number of questions for both Dr. Lynch and Ms McNally. I will read them out and they might be able to answer them now but if not they might provide a written reply later. Why did the Department pull all ECCE funding, which had devastating consequences for services? Will the witnesses guarantee that they will never consider doing this again? Why are no operational costs being covered? How many services do they expect will close this year and if that happens, where might they be located? Have they done a financial analysis of the situation? Finally, in America, they have what they call "preschool deserts", where there are no preschools in many communities. Do the witnesses think that is a possibility here in Ireland? Rural Ireland in particular is a big worry for us going forward. I would appreciate if the witnesses could answer those questions. I can repeat some of them if I was too quick reading them out.