Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the refreshing clarity the Minister is bringing to the answers she is giving. The clarity she brought to the question on the linkage between child benefit and school attendance was very useful because we did not get anything close to that from the Taoiseach yesterday.

My question is on the plans in the programme for Government to tender out public school facilities for use as after-school child care by community and other organisations. I am delighted that public schools are being used for this purpose because it is essential, particularly for parents, and lone parents, who are in work but I am concerned about the use of public schools for potentially private enterprise. Would the Minister not be better off looking towards a publicly funded model for publicly controlled child care facilities? There are many problems with the private model and I may come back to them once I have heard the Minister's response.

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