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

With the height of respect to the Minister, what we are trying to establish today is to give confidence in the sector to the people who are returning to work. The Taoiseach has launched a road map which includes a heading for childcare and education. Under education, there is nothing. Under childcare, there are three phases, with phase 1 being to provide support, confidence and a nine-week wait for essential front-line workers. Phase 3 is the reintegration of the outreach model into the in-service provision for essential front-line workers. However, we will already have had two other phases before moving on to phase 3. Workers want to know whether they are deemed essential. How do we restore people's confidence when they have seen phase 1 fall off the map?

Finally, when phase 4 comes along, will we be telling workers going out that they can only have care or provision on one day out of five? Are we saying to the woman going back to work that she must tell her employer she can only show up on one day out of five? Can the Minister explain this road map to me?

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