Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I believe one of the other questions I have tabled concerns sustainability. The Minister will not be surprised at this stage by my saying that the sector probably has been undervalued and underfunded for years. Hopefully the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will be the Minister to change this and to ensure the sector is funded correctly. There will always be a certain amount of closures as it is natural for that to happen but there were 42 in County Dublin, 16 in County Cork and 13 in County Kildare. What supports are available for parents in those areas? Are they perhaps being given support through the city and county childcare committees to access other childcare places? That does not even take into account the workers in that sector. There have been job losses, which we do not want to see given the amount of job losses that we are going to see anyway due to Covid. This is a sector in which we want to hang on to those valuable and highly-trained staff. What supports are there for them when a facility closes?

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