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

We are providing significant new core funding. The allocation for this first year is €221 million. We have also made it clear that we are going to be putting additional money into the NCS. Therefore, we are making these schemes as attractive as possible to support providers as far as possible. As I said already in my answers, one of three challenges we face is the sustainability of providers. We cannot force providers into schemes. That has always been something we have been clear about. We are, however, making these schemes as attractive as possible to providers in order to support them and allow them, in turn, to support and retain their staff and to be able to improve delivery of childcare services to parents. We are seeing strong take-up in this regard, as has been demonstrated by the 96% of providers participating in the transition scheme.

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