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

I appreciate the Minister's answer. According to the previous census 10% of children from birth to 12 years are cared for by paid childminders, and approximately 90,000 young children are cared for by childminders in Ireland. One of the most shocking figures I ever received via a parliamentary response was on the question of how many childminders are registered, which I asked three years ago. The figure I got back was there are 120 registered Tusla childminders in the entire country. Some counties had no registered childminders at all, which is quite hard to believe given that the census tells us quite differently with the 10% figure. In 2012, the post of childminding advisory officer, as part of the city and county childcare committees, was disbanded or no longer used. Perhaps the Minister will tell the House when it is planned to put that childminding advisory officer back onto all of the city and county childcare committees as a link between the childminders and the city and county childcare committees so that we can start doing the support.

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