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

If the Deputy does not mind, I will not get too involved in the specific instance she has raised, because I do not know if it is in a fee-review process through Pobal. It may well be and may be one of the cases. I do not know. However, there are processes whereby parents can flag issues and there are significant consequences for the service, such as the withdrawal of the funding agreement, which is very significant. In many cases, it would be worth thousands, if not tens of thousands, of euro to the service. A breach of the agreement is not insignificant. However, the Deputy is right in that childcare is still too expensive in our country. We have made significant steps. We have brought in the fee freeze for the first time ever. We have achieved a significant increase in the national childcare scheme, NCS, as of 1 January this year. We have increased the subsidy to parents and there has been an average of 25% reduction in their out-of-pocket costs. We will look to do more in next year's budget because even though we have taken big steps, we need to do more to continue to reduce the cost of childcare for everybody.

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