Mr. Eugene Waters:

I will answer Deputy Rabbitte's question even though she is not here. Regarding the true cost of child care and the issue of sustainability, it is important that the CCCs are here as a Government-funded support to the child care. We are not mandated in any way to speak for the child care services, which is what Ms Heeney and Ms Quinn do. The true cost of child care is subject to many complex variables in terms of the structure of the delivery, the geography and how providers offer their service. We will obviously await the outcome of the independent Department of Children and Youth Affairs review.

This not the first major change to child care. Previously, community services were in receipt of a staffing grant and that moved to the community subvention, which was a major shift in the model. Equally, the launch of the ECCE scheme represented a seismic shift. Over the years, the CCCs have had a long history of working locally within their various counties to support those services. They have built up robust and evidence-based tools that are used. They are used by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in the context of the CE programme, in respect of which Ms Woods will answer Deputy Ó Laoghaire's question.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked about capacity. As Ms Heeney mentioned, the majority of parents who may access this new programme are in situ. It is not all new parents. It is important not to underestimate the capacity within the scheme either. Just over a year ago the Government announced it had expanded the ECCE programme which increased the numbers eligible for the scheme by almost 100%. There would have been questions over the capacity in the sector to meet those demands at the time. Working with the services and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the CCCs were able to locally monitor whether there was capacity for that ECCE expansion so that no child who was eligible for the ECCE programme was unable to do that.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has been very responsive where the sector has identified small policy changes that are required. For example, the service providers mentioned that they needed to be paid higher capitation by room as opposed to by whole service and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs responded to that. Equally, there have been and continue to be capital investment programmes supporting the expansion of capacity within the sector.

Deputy Funchion asked if we thought the scheme should be held up while we wait. I am not mandated to speak on behalf of the earlier services because our role is in terms of providing support. I am not sure if everybody in the room is familiar with the PIP scheme where the service is used to register children, calculate payments, etc. As Ms Quinn said, that has taken time to bed in. However, it now calculates, for instance, how much subvention is available per child and when those payments are due. There is a schedule that works around any fluctuations in that. Services having had support have got used to that.

When that was first announced, there were great expectations for what it might do on day one. It has taken until day 101 to achieve some of that functionality. The CCCs did some of that manual paperwork behind the scenes to ensure the children were registered and the paperwork was done even if the interface of it was essentially IT-based, some of the functionality of it happened through a paper exercise. It would be a shame to delay the benefits of the scheme to parents, which people have acknowledged, when by working together and utilising the supports available, those challenges are not insurmountable.

I will ask Ms Woods to speak now.