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

It is useful to have these pilots before we begin the full scheme in September. It is intended to have the full scheme - the 6,000 places - operating from September. A decision was taken subsequent to the first announcement to do a second pilot in July because it was felt it would be helpful to roll it out in a number of other areas and learn from that.

My Department has had a huge amount of contact in recent months with each county child care committee in terms of developing a national approach to child care and co-ordinating the work of the child care committees. I have no doubt that during the course of those consultations, the new decision, and it is a relatively new decision going back to the budget, to establish an after-care school project would have been discussed. Those discussions will continue in the coming months. They are pivotal in terms of analysing and supplying to us the number of child care places that are available in each area. My Department has been heavily involved in that. The Deputy will appreciate there is a huge amount of work involved in getting this scheme up and running this year.

The issues the Deputy raises about quality and standards will also be discussed on an ongoing basis to determine what precisely will be in place in September and the best approach. I will revert to the Deputy regarding the question on the regulations.

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