Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I take the Deputy's point and his position with regard to the broader mica scheme and whether it can be changed. The Deputy knows the programme for Government includes a commitment to review it. The Deputy may correct me if I am wrong, but my sense of it when I meet playgroups and others affected is that they just want a solution. They are understandably less fussed on how that solution comes about, but want to know that there is a way for them to continue to provide the very excellent service that they do. What I want to echo and repeat in this House today is that the Government is committed to working constructively with them and others to try to find that way forward, through the childcare committee and Pobal in the first instance. I assure the Deputy of my ongoing personal interest, that of the Minister, Deputy Foley, and that of the Government more widely.

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