Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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549. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the levels of entitlement stated in the affordable childcare scheme; the entitlements for persons who do not work regular hours or shift work and who cannot place their children in crèche care during normal business hours; her views on whether there is a level of inconsistency regarding the number of persons who can avail of affordable child care under the scheme (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41427/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Childcare provisions in my Department operate to support parents to access employment and to meet the needs and well-being of children.

It is considered to be in the best interests of children to have regular and consistent patterns of childcare and our systems are set up with this in mind.

In certain exceptional circumstances, we do allow for unusual arrangements, but as currently constructed we cannot facilitate all possible permutations of childcare. Our system operates on the basis of fixed weekly patterns. This may be something that my Department can review for future programme cycles as unfortunately, it is not possible to make major system changes after the operational commencement of a childcare programme.