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

Until this year, the sole capital funding coming from my Department for early years services was for the building of new services or extensions to existing services. My Department and I, as Minister, have recognised that when a service requires major work - I am not talking about fire safety doors - there is a need for a fund to support community services. The situation outlined by Deputy Doherty, where there is going to have to be a complete rebuild, and the situation outlined by Deputy Barry, where very significant renovations are required, fall within those categories. That is why we are devising this new capital funding scheme. We are working on it. We will be in a position, in the near future, to provide details to services like the ones the Deputies outlined. We are engaging with the Cork childcare committee as well in terms of services in north Cork. This is a new stream recognising the seriousness of these matters and putting financial supports in place to enable that to be addressed.

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