Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I met the federation. Officials and I had a lengthy meeting with representatives from the federation. We are continuing to engage with the federation, which submitted a detailed document to us. We do not agree with all elements of it and we are working through it.

Core funding is about covering the costs of delivery. One of the key elements here is that as the sessional services, by their nature, have a shorter operating day and fewer numbers of hours per week, their costs of delivery are different to full day centre services. That is why when one does a full analysis of how much a full day centre costs, we are not just talking about big ones but about small community full day centres as well, they are by their nature going to get more from core funding because they are open more. They are open 48 or 49 weeks a year as opposed to 38. They are open 40 hours a week compared to 30. That is where that raw difference comes from. In terms of operating costs, we believe we are meeting the operating costs of providers.

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