Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Is it not the problem that because we are relying on the private sector, this will inevitably happen? The evidence is there and the Minister acknowledged it. As to the provision of places, the issue was highlighted to me in my area where there was a crèche in the Holy Child school in Sallynoggin. For reasons I do not understand, the school closed the crèche in the middle of the year, leaving a number of mothers, children and families high and dry with nowhere to go. They were told to find somewhere else, which they simply could not do. People in Sallynoggin were told to go to Rathfarnham, which was totally unsustainable for people working in education and so on. There are simply not the places. The local childcare committee and the council acknowledge the problem but does not have the resources because we are not directly providing the affordable childcare places. That is the only way we are going to get the affordable childcare on the scale we need to address this need.

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