Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can the Minister clarify exactly how many spaces are available at present? In a reply to a parliamentary question I asked a few months ago, he said approximately 10,000 spaces were available. Assuming that, as Pobal found in a survey it carried out, approximately 6,245 of those places are available in rural areas, with 3,245 available in urban areas, and given that the expansion of the community child care subvention scheme, which will create 13,000 places, was announced in this budget, how are we going to have the capacity in the sector? In an answer to a previous question, the Minister talked about commencing a mapping process now. Surely that should have been done before the extension to the scheme was announced. Does the Minister know where there is capacity in the services throughout the country at the moment? I do not think he does.

He talks about phasing it in over a period, with an extra 22,000 in September 2016 and a further 22,000 in January 2017 but what is going to be there to help services build the capacity? Is the Minister going to introduce a capital grant scheme so they can build on additional space if required? We have already extended the timeframe to enable people to upgrade their qualifications to September 2016 because we do not have the required number at present. While everyone will concur that a second free preschool year is needed and welcome, I have grave reservations that this was announced as part of an election ploy without due consideration for the capacity of the sector to develop.

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