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

The modernisation fund which has been opened up already is not the right fund and is just for the modernisation and upgrading of their existing buildings but the capacity expansion scheme is about bringing new services online. We are still working on the criteria for it but it is certainly my desire that we want and need new capacity and we want services to expand.

It is interesting that the core funding that we brought in has already started to deliver expanded capacity and our focus in our debates here was very much about better wages for staff but it is also about increasing the capacity. I will be answering a couple of questions later on during which I will address that issue.

One more point on the capacity issue is in respect of the planning laws where we need to make planning regulations which are linked so that when 75 units of housing are built, a childcare facility is built. That is there at the moment but it is not delivering in many places. I have been engaging with local authorities to try to get the on-the-ground experience and we will also be engaging with housing to tighten up those regulations so that they deliver.

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