Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Senator's amendment uses "and", which implies that one must apply to both the HSE and the accredited body. If we are speaking about bureaucracy, that would add unnecessary layers. I presume that what was envisaged was that one or the other would be done and one could be left with an alternative. As I stated in a previous reply, I do not believe that possible with regard to the Child Care Act and the obligations of the HSE.

I mentioned the budgetary considerations not to limit what I stated earlier. I thought it went without saying that any decision of Government has budgetary considerations and this is sad when one considers health and children. It is not something one would like but the HSE is obliged under the Health Act 2004 to remain within its allocation of funding. That is a statutory obligation as passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas. The budgetary considerations are laid out in statute and go without saying in my view. Such considerations were not mentioned to couch what I said earlier, as they are fairly obvious.