Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue I came across in a small village called Watergrasshill, north of Cork city. It concerns the provision of a school-age childcare service. The long and the short of is that the provider of this service has English as her second language. She went in good faith to apply on the Pobal website for funding for the provision of her service. In error, she put in the tabulation that she had one child attending her service rather than 24. This was an error because she thought the question concerned how many services she was providing. This woman has no right to appeal and Pobal's response heretofore has been that she is now locked in for funding for the whole year. Whether the error was due to a language barrier issue or the wrong clicking of a mouse, this woman now has no right to appeal. She is providing a childcare service for 24 children but only being funded for one just because of what I think is an overly prescriptive interpretation of the guidelines. I ask the Taoiseach to write to Pobal or deal with the organisation in respect of having this woman's file reviewed or appealed in some way to give her the chance to get the appropriate funding.

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