Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I am well able to listen to people. When I was here last week the only person who I recall mentioning the word "equality" in regard to the provision of child care was Senator Mary White on this side of the House. Other speakers pontificated about what they saw as deficiencies in the scheme, but nobody made the point that as the scheme is being operated in some places, the most needy children were being deprived of a place in some of these community facilities, the children from whom these schemes were devised initially.

I want to ensure that the tiered fee structure that was supposed to be in place in all the facilities is more uniformly applied. I want to say to the community providers who have done excellent work in providing child care facilities, and who applied the tiered system in a proper way on the basis of the ability to pay to ensure that more children could avail of that service and that there would be less demand on the less advantaged parents, that we want a uniformed tiered system introduced. Some Members of the Lower House and Upper House have said that the tiered fee structure was never part of the criteria, but itwas.