Ms Elaine Dunne:

We have just been told "No", that this is not an option, the fee freeze is staying and this is it. This is very unfortunate because many of us small and medium-sized service providers did the right thing by our client parents and children and did not put up our fees from when the pandemic started to now. We are now stuck there. There are other services, however, that upped their fees, cleverly, in 2021 by 15% and 20%. They are now doing extremely well, while we are the ones suffering. There is no level playing field here for the type of providers I have mentioned. The ECCE fee from 2010 to 2013 was €69. There is core funding, but this still does not cover what is needed.