Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I am particularly interested in the capacity measure. I was involved in a getting a group in my constituency a childcare facility in that town. I remember people saying that it would never be used to its fullest potential because there would not be enough children. Thankfully, in one sense, it is not able to cope with the numbers. This is a great sign of how satisfied parents are with the quality of the childcare provided and the great support that is given to parents, particularly mothers, who want to return to the workforce. A very committed and active committee is involved with the project. It is looking at the numbers for the future and it has outlined to me that it will have to leave the present accommodation because it cannot grow it any more. We went through some figures. We are talking about a large amount of funding to put a new childcare facility in place.

When we have that willingness and determination from local communities to put in place proper childcare for the local children, we have to ensure every possible support is given to them. In the past we had grants of up to €1.2 million available for community childcare facilities. Those facilities have transformed childcare provision in so many communities and we need to keep repeating that.

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