Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I appreciate what the Minister said about the investment. I acknowledge the huge investment and commitment to making this happen. I also appreciate her acknowledgement that the pressures on childcare providers are not the same throughout the country. In a constituency like Dún Laoghaire where the cost of living and the cost of accommodation are so much higher, would the Minister consider, as part of the incentives being put in place to ensure childcare providers remain within the schemes, that the incentives might be varied from one area to another? That would be in recognition of the fact that the challenges are greater for childcare providers in an area like south Dublin than they might be in an area where the cost of living is lesser. Will the Minister commit, acknowledging this is going to happen in stages, to giving us a timetable for how this might happen, when it might happen and when each stage of the delivery of this commitment in the programme for Government might happen?

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