Ms Bernie McNally:

It is a market model. To go back to some of the other Deputies' questions, I am not sure Ireland ever set out to develop a private childcare sector but that is what it is at the moment - a market model. Many organisations, including a number of hospitals, have built crèches or provided accommodation. Certainly, a number of big organisations have done so. We have worked with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation to assist any companies looking at doing so. Our schemes, including the national childcare scheme and the early childhood care and education, ECCE, preschool scheme, are available to anybody who wishes to set up a childcare service in those entities. Clearly, the parents would have to be eligible but, once they are, the organisation could attract State investment.