Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The rate of closures was down this year. It was the lowest this year compared with previous years. This is a fact that we need to take on board. The other side of this equation is parents paying very high fees. Part of the core funding model is to have management of fees in return for an allocation of additional funding. The results have been fairly significant for many parents in terms of the reduction of the fees and the bills they received in December last year. There has been an appreciable improvement in terms of the reduction of fees. We want to go further.

The model is one that we need to stick with and work with. If there are issues with particular providers we must see if we can tweak it and refine it to ensure sustainability. No one here is wilfully trying to put people out of business. The big concern of Governments all along has been that we allocate resources but the parents do not see the outcome of the allocation of those resources. There has to be a quid pro quoif we give more sustainable funding. We now have the employment regulation order. The costs were simply too high for people and they are still very high. This initiative has reduced significantly for the first time in a long time the costs for people availing of childcare.

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