Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The universality of the payment is a recognition of the fact that families with children have higher costs than those without. That has always been the principle and, given that it is enshrined in my personal belief, will remain so for as long as I am Minister.

My comments do not mean that anything will be frozen. Rather, we are using whatever money we have to try to improve and expand the range of public services. We all recognise that these are badly needed, in particular financially supported childcare, of which there is a major deficit. Stemming from the conversation that gave rise to the reporting, addressing that deficit is one of our country-specific objectives in the current EU semester, but there are also other measures, for example, medical care for children. We have free GP access for children under six years of age. The programme for Government would like to extend that. We added a second year to the early childhood care and education, ECCE, year that was introduced by the Deputy's Government. We would like to maintain and extend that scheme, increase capitations and improve quality. This is all about increasing and improving the range of services that the public service can offer people.

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