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

I thank the Minister for her response. I tabled that question following the capital grants announced in the past week. I referred specifically to Mountbellew Community Childcare Centre. I may have referred to Mountbellew Community Childcare Centre on the floor already. The centre is like many others in that it is in a rural area but can supply a service to areas like Galway or Athlone.

This year that crèche has been oversubscribed in the sense it will have to let go three staff because it cannot facilitate 16 children this year as it was not fortunate enough in getting a capital grant. In the past the crèche had used a national school room but because the numbers have grown in the national school room it now does not have the space. It is a community crèche in which the Government invested heavily. I have a concern around capacity. There is a capacity issue in my colleague Deputy Smyth's constituency of Cavan-Monaghan as well. It is not just in isolated areas, we have issues around it and I wonder how we can address it.

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