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

I fully agree with Deputy Ó Laoghaire that early learning and childcare is a public good. When I came into office, we were spending €638 million per year on it but by next September we will be spending €1.1 billion on it. We have responded and recognised that through investment. One of those investments is the capital scheme, which will be a competitive scheme. Existing services will make applications and one of the key criteria will be applications for areas of low supply, whether that be Achill island or Cork city. Certainly anecdotally, both are areas where supply seems pressured at the moment.

In terms of the wider infrastructure, as the Deputies know, we are doing a bigger piece of work in terms of looking at, potentially, a childcare agency which may involve an amalgamation of some of the existing infrastructure, including Pobal, the county childcare committees, CCCs, and other relevant organisations and certainly the powers that exist will be part of that discussion.

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