Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The €1,500 additional support payment is in recognition of the additional administration that childcare providers were tasked with in 2019. This is the statement that issued from the Minister herself today. This will go to administration and will not necessarily go anywhere else.

We have to consider deeply what sort of society we are in at the moment. We are dependent on children being looked after in childcare and early learning supports. It is a fundamental requirement for families now to have this. We are leaving it to the vagaries of the insurance market as to whether crèches will survive. Either we have a public insurance body that provides insurance to childcare and other targeted areas or we bring in something like what I and every other Deputy in this Chamber has, which is the ability to get public liability insurance for about €300 a year, or the ability, which I have, through Dublin City Council to get insurance to cover my posters for the year for approximately €120. Why can we not introduce something like this so that crèches can link in and get insurance at affordable prices to cover themselves?

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