Ms Sonya Duggan:

We do not get fees. It is free. We are fully funded by the Department. From our parents whose children are full day or part time, we take away the reduction of the ECCE scheme and the national childcare scheme. It makes it a lot more affordable. One of our services is €185 a week. Next years, the parents will only have to pay €13.70 a day for full-day care. That is €73 a week after the NCS contribution. That is based on the universal scheme, which is increasing from €1.40 to €2.14 an hour. Obviously, many of our parents are means-tested. Last year, the parents of one child only had to pay €5.95 a week for 45 hours of care. The NCS is absolutely working. It is 100% brilliant. Parents are being looked after and our staff are on the road to being looked after but, with the higher cap we had before, we were not singling out one staff member as a group leader. The higher cap only acknowledges one level 7 or level 8 person per room. We would often have three degree graduates in a room of 22. Who do we decide who will be the group leader? We were fair and equal to everyone. This is the issue. We are pitting staff against staff, staff against employers and parents against providers and it is making the whole situation quite intolerable at times.

There is also the fact that, like many others, my staff cannot get mortgages. I had a staff member who was homeless. I am thankful that our Laois Deputies were superb in helping to secure accommodation for that staff member, who has two children with additional needs. I heard from a staff member this morning who is in the same position. A parent came to us crying this morning. She was kicked out of her house on 27 October and is now in a hotel in Mountrath. She is like a refugee and has two children with additional needs. She is not a refugee; she just has nowhere to live. It is terrible. We are facing the reality of those situations and hearing those stories every day while also doing our jobs and being educators in the room.