Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is very welcome news. If the 78 applicants do not take up the €25 million, I ask the Minister to urgently reopen the scheme. Seven weeks was not a very long window for childcare providers to make applications to the scheme, so I would very much like her to look at reopening it if the money is not all utilised. In addition to that, however, I would very much appreciate it if the Minister looked for additional funding. We really need to prioritise areas like mine - Skerries, Balbriggan, Rush and Lusk - and do everything we can to provide more childcare facilities in these areas. We are not just doing families, women and parents a disservice; it is also a loss to the Irish economy. Female participation over the past 40 years has really driven the success of the Irish economy. Our best resource is our highly educated women and men. If we do not have childcare for them, we are failing ourselves as an economy, as well as parents and children who are unbelievably stressed by not having access to childcare.

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