Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, I have quite an expressed interest in this area, not only as a parent of preschool children but also as someone who is married to a Montessori teacher. In advance of this session I received dozens of questions, which I will submit to the Minister in writing, and I thank him for already answering some of them when questioned by other Deputies. With the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence, I am going to ask a series of short questions and hopefully I will be able to leave about a minute for the Minister to address them. If the time goes over, of course I will give way.

With respect to childcare providers, will the Minister commit to simplifying the system for drawing down supports, bearing in mind that most of these services are single person-operated? Will the Minister commit to ensuring that any future announcements will not be made on a Friday evening, after hours, giving providers just the weekend to prepare? Will the Minister commit to ensuring that proper PPE is provided to all early years and early school providers? Will the Minister commit to looking at a new VAT recovery system for childcare providers, bearing in mind that while childcare is VAT exempt, the heating, maintenance and so much else are not?

From the perspective of parents such as myself, can the Minister provide clarity - and this may have to be done in writing - on fees? Parents are still paying fees even though they cannot access the service. They are being required to pay holding fees for places that have not been drawn down or for after-school places. This is providing quite a bit of frustration and confusion and that feeds into the issue that there is a chronic lack of places, not just in our constituencies but across the country, particularly for younger children. Drawing on what Deputy Murnane O'Connor said, is it the Minister's intention to reopen the ECCE scheme at the same time as national schools are reopened, whenever that may be?

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