Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

There will be a lack of women at the dinner. I notice that recently a judge in that area boycotted the organisation. The only point I make is that I would have hoped, in an era when we have brought in equality legislation in recent years, the Taoiseach would have made a different choice when choosing to represent us in the United States than an organisation with an all-male membership policy, despite the charitable work which I am aware it does. It is a poor choice and I hope it will not be repeated.

I want to raise another issue that is of concern to all of us, namely, the cost of child care. This matter has been discussed here on a number of occasions. Many Members will be aware that child care facilities have been hit with very high rates demands in recent weeks. An example in my area is Fonthill Lodge crèche in Lucan, which paid €10,145 in rates in 2007, but has seen an increase of 85% to €17,845. This is causing major concern because of the impact it will have on running child care facilities. The possibility exists to exempt child care units of this type because they are educational facilities. The National Children's Nurseries Association, NCNA, is meeting the Minister later this week to express its concern and I ask the Leader, and the deputy Leader, to raise the matter with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in order that the issue might be looked at and consideration given to excluding child care facilities and crèches from these high rates demands on the grounds that they are educational facilities. This would make sense, certainly for parents who pay so much for child care facilities.