Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy has concerns about planning on Meath County Council, he should take it up with Meath County Council. Plenty of local authorities require that childcare facilities be provided as part of new major residential developments. If the Deputy had told me about it, I would have raised it with the Fianna Fáil mayor of Meath, whom I met only yesterday.

On childcare, we are trying to assess the scale of the problem. The issue has only arisen in the past 11 days when one of two insurers pulled out of the market. We are assessing the scale of the problem. We are very aware of the concerns that parents have that their crèche may close in the new year or they may face a major hike in fees.

The Minister is assessing the situation and we will discuss it further later today.

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