Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just to make the point that at the time, the service argued that a substantial number of parents who had enrolled their children in the service did not adhere to their attendance schedule. Clearly, this can happen with services, and that is the reason we have oversight by Pobal and the reason we revert to services to ask them for greater details. At the time, in 2010 and 2011, there was no follow-up with parents who had agreed an attendance pattern but whose children had not attended. Consequently, there was no structure to the hours of operation, resulting in overstaffing if the service could not predict attendance on a regular basis. I wish to inform the Senator that it is not believed that the non-compliance of this service resulted in any personal financial gain to any member of the group, and the group has been co-operative in meeting the repayment schedules.