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

To comment on that, most people would accept that if something is not working, there has to be a period of time in which one looks at fixing it, but this has dragged on. What people are seeking in the interim is that the older funding be kept in place until a solution is found. In that way nobody is paying a price and nobody is disadvantaged. Otherwise, we are potentially coming up with a solution when many of the services for these children may have faced closure point. In addition, at the meeting of the committee on children last Tuesday, one of the points made by the after-school services was that, while they are not a childcare service but a separate type of service, a new funding stream or model should be examined for them. That should be considered as part of the review.

I also wish to mention briefly the people who are working in the sector. Next week, we must see something in the budget for those early years professionals. They do amazing work and are on very low wages in very difficult situations. They have to see something next week to give them hope to stay in the sector.

See this speech in context