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

I am very proud of what we have managed to achieve in the lead in to and the establishment of the national childcare scheme, particularly in placing a focus on the families about whom the Deputies are speaking. They are fully aware that one of the major objectives of the scheme as I have developed it is to decrease the level of child poverty and, in particular, increase and empower vulnerable families and lone parents. We have done it in different ways before. The move to the national childcare scheme is to enable those families with the least money to receive the most subsidies. We are maintaining that objective as we move to the national childcare scheme.

To answer Deputy Paul Murphy's question specifically, my hope is that is not the case, but it depends on the ages of the children involved, their requirements and how many hours of childcare are required. We have increased the number of hours, particularly with those families in mind. Until people receive the subsidies in calculating how much their children require, we will not know, but we will continue to monitor the position.

There was one other question, although I know that I have run out of time.

See this speech in context