I want to ask the Minister about childcare and core funding. Parents with children in the Little Rainbows crèche in my constituency were told by the operator this summer that the operator was withdrawing from core funding and increasing its fees. The increased fees are simply not sustainable or affordable for many of the parents, forcing some of them to choose whether they can continue to afford to work. As the Minister knows, this is not an isolated case; this has been unfolding in similar situations across the country. There are no protections in place for parents and they have no right to appeal these decisions. Will the Minister and his Department engage with the operator in this instance to find a resolution that will work for parents and their children? What is the Department doing to tackle this?

What we are doing to tackle it is make core funding as attractive as possible for providers. Ultimately, providers have a right to make decisions, and we look to make core funding attractive to them. We have done that by growing the overall amount of core funding available to funders. This year, it will go to €331 million, a 15% increase. We have also recognised, however, that the fee freeze that is in place impacted certain providers differently according to when they last raised their fees. We have put in place a mechanism whereby a provider whose fees are out of line with neighbouring providers can apply to make a fee increase, again trying to bring fairness and equality into the system. There are a number of services under that umbrella. My understanding is that one of those services has subsequently contracted with core funding and the parents there will be able to get the benefits of the lower levels of fees. However, we have done all we can to make the core funding as attractive as possible for services.