Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are a range of financial issues that need to be addressed. I remind the Deputy, for example, that the Mangan report, which examines the interaction between the tax and welfare system and addresses some of these issues, is currently being examined by the education committee. I await the outcome of those discussions at the committee. Clearly, any decision in regard to child benefit is a budgetary issue and comes primarily under the remit of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton.

In terms of the funding of a second preschool year, a range of steps would need to be undertaken as we move towards the development of a second year.

There are several issues about workforce capacity which we need to address, questions of quality and standards which the Deputy has raised. My Department is examining each of these issues relating to the one year we already have but also to providing a second year. One has to have regard to the €1 billion a month that we continue to borrow and to the fiscal situation and overall economy. I welcome the comments of the Minister for Education and Skills. It is important to have this discussion about the services we should be providing in the early years, and the early years strategy which I hope to publish in July should give us a framework for addressing those issues.

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