Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Rabbitte's first question on the number of places, I will ask for that information for her. I gather she asks the question because she is wondering if there is enough funding for the places that are required where they are required. As I said, I will certainly ask for that. As the Deputy will be aware, my Department, along with Pobal, has worked diligently and with considerable technical expertise, at least in the past, to try to answer these types of questions and to develop methodologies to ascertain, as we move into the future, how we ensure that we do that. It is good that the Deputy asks that question and that they will continue to do that.

One of the concerns may be around where we have newly built estates with young demographics. With the kind of methodology that is being developed, the monitoring capacity is conducted through the use of a so-called geosparcity index which categorises a geographical area in regard to the supply of and demand for childcare. That merely demonstrates that there is attention to this and methodologies being developed to ensure that we can keep up with what we need and where we need it.

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