Ms Elaine Dunne:

Every service in this country, or I presume this is the case, has been running the ECCE schemes. I refer to larger services, even in the context of full daycare. For example, I take the €69 off my parental fees. I refer to looking at a mechanism that would work around this situation. I have no idea how it would work. We are, though, entitled to have the capitation grant raised for these children. Our biggest worry, though, is for those sessional-only services that are closing in rural and urban Ireland. As the Deputy knows, I met him, along with quite a number of providers in County Mayo. I also know they are still in contact. It can be seen that some of these providers are now pulling out of core funding and increasing their fees. County Mayo actually has one of the lowest level of fees in the country. We need to go back and look at this situation as well. I say this because we have these providers who are stuck at 2017 levels. They already charge the lowest fees in Ireland anyway, and they cannot even come up to the average rate.