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

I thank the Minister for her response. Can she get the following information? How many places will strands A and C support on average throughout the country? With the creation of the additional early childhood care and education, ECCE places arising from the second year of it, has the Department enough funding for capital projects to support that expansion? Certain providers, be they in the community or the private sectors, feel restricted. They would like to take on extra children but they cannot fulfil the agreement for the two years because they just do not have the funding, although they might have the space.

I refer to the idea of accumulating some of the grants. Grants are provided for the ECCE in the morning. If providers can also get access to the grant for the after-school care in the evening and they can tie that in with the fire safety grant, how many crèches or providers get full return and how many can get only a part of that grant mechanism?

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