Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I tabled this question because I recently met a woman who has been trying to get her child, who has a disability, into a preschool service. Even though she lives just outside Portumna, the only preschool service she can get for her child is near Limerick. When I got in behind the bones of it, I discovered that some child care providers do not look on this project favourably because, frustratingly, it takes 50 working days, or ten weeks, for the whole assessment to be put through. One of the first announcements made by the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, involved the provision of €40 million for the project. There are 1,900 trained link workers and I reckon that a further 900 such staff are in training. I discovered earlier in response to a question that 120,000 children are availing of the early childhood care and education scheme. Has the Minister considered that Pobal could do the applications and the training during the summer? This would enable child care providers to have their systems up and running when services resume on 1 September.

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