Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

No. I am informed that the service continued in any case, funded by the Department of Health and Children. Those crèches received funding from the Department through the health boards and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. We paid 1,738 people by the end of 2003 but we do not have a figure for those who might have applied to us had the rule not been changed. We have no way of measuring that figure. The Senator could probably estimate how many might have applied had the rule not been changed. We do not have a way of getting that figure.