On Friday, I met Denise from Tiernans Nursery in Rathmines. She has been operating it for over 35 years. Unfortunately, she has had to take the decision to exit core funding to make ends meet. She has had to notify parents of that. This is not a person who is looking to make loads of money; she is just trying to continue to provide the service she was already providing. Since I was elected as a TD, I have met lots of childcare providers in my constituency who have had to make this difficult decision to exit core funding. They do not want to tell parents that they are going to have to increase their fees, and obviously the Government is trying to reduce the cost of childcare for parents. My question is on the level of engagement the Department can have with providers that do exit. From responses to parliamentary questions, I know the overall figures are relatively small. However, we want to get them back into the system. We do not want people exiting core funding because we cannot control the fees if they do so. Some of this is bureaucracy and the various funding schemes that they have to operate under. Could we be doing more for providers that exit core funding so that we can keep the costs down for parents and support providers at the same time?

Sentiment score: 0.03