Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. As I said, however, core funding is working for some but not for all. It is like a tale of two experiences and I fear we are not listening to the people who are having difficulty. My experience is that this issue is not affecting new services. There is not enough supply in the sector and we need to protect the services that are operating now and keep them in the sector. I completely accept that core funding works, but I think we are at a pinch point. In the next few weeks and months we are going to see an increase in people talking about pulling out of core funding or actually doing so. I spoke to one service today who said core funding covers 15% of its business and it is just not sustainable. I accept these figures but there is a bigger picture here and I ask that the Minister speak to operators like Cherry Blossom montessori in Castleknock. He knows the issues there. Like I said, every place counts.