Ms Bernie McNally:

It is broadly as a right. They have to go through a process but once they are supported by a sponsor, there are no particular strings attached to it.

I was also asked about Garda vetting. The Minister has given additional resources to Early Childhood Ireland, some members of which are in the Gallery, and officials have met Barnardos to determine whether there is a need for additional resources there. Senator Freeman asked about cherry-picking and we very much hope that will not happen. The schemes of the past could only be accessed by community services so the situation was, to some extent, one of community services versus private services, but we recently opened up the CCS to private services.

Several hundred private services are now providing those schemes. As the affordable child care scheme develops, the Minister's vision is very much that it will be the only show in town. We hope and expect that all services will sign up for it, particularly because of the universal element which will bring them all in. We will have legislation in place but we will also have contacts, built into which will be a requirement to provide inclusive services. We mean that inclusiveness in the broadest sense.

We were asked about fee policy and whether, come September, services will know what to charge. The answer is that they should because we will have told them. We have had the discussion about how we will do it. Certainly, we will be telling them what the subsidy is and they will already have published their fee, which will be stated. The total fee will be a certain amount less the subsidy we provide. The parent will pay the difference. That should be clear. As the Minister said, we will be working.