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

When there is a reopening, the centres will invite in fewer children than they initially are able to care for. That is the reality in light of the public health restrictions we are operating under. I am sorry about that, as I am sure we all are, but my hope is that a reopening will begin then and we are planning intensively for that. There will be fewer children and, as I said before, the schools will not be open. We are still finalising the issues with staff-to-child ratios, the space that is required in premises and whether they need to change it or whether they need more than they had before, etc. Those are the things we are looking at. They are the key things for which we need to have the public health advice finalised so that we can then start making decisions in that regard and plan further. Those are some of the priorities and that is what is happening.

It is a phased approach, given that we are within the public health restrictions. We start with a little bit, and we move on and get more and more. It will not be until July that we say it will be open for everyone but the capacity will nonetheless be lower than it was before. The demand may also be less, which we are aware of.

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