Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I acknowledge the sacrifice and work of their staff over recent months. I also acknowledge and thank their families because the sacrifice was not just made by those staff but by their children and by the members of their extended families who stepped in and assisted. I am aware of a nurse in Wicklow whose sister took her child for eight full weeks. She did not see her own child for eight weeks when she worked in the Covid unit. That is a huge sacrifice not only for her but for her child.

I have a number of questions and I ask the witnesses to answer them briefly because we are very limited in terms of time. I refer to the appendix on the consultation that took place. It seems the majority of the consultation was between the witnesses' organisations and the HSE. At what stage was there consultation with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, specifically in the context of the front-line workers' childcare scheme? That scheme was meant to start in May and I would have anticipated the Department was heavily involved in discussing the options for a scheme set up specifically for the workers represented by the witnesses. What level of consultation happened in April and May on this?