‘It was never going to be easy’: Zappone defends childcare scheme after criticism

The new scheme is being rolled out for the first time this year.

INDEPENDENT TD MATTIE McGrath has called on Minister for Children Katherine Zappone to fix what he has described as “significant blocks” hampering parents from taking advantage of the Affordable Child Care scheme.

McGrath has claimed that he has been contacted by parents who said their registered child care service would not be signing up to the scheme and that neither would the four other main providers in their area.

He said that the refusal of services to sign up is due to the supposed admin burden foisted on child care facilities.

“Unfortunately the feedback I and many parents are getting from child care providers is that the enormous administrative burden associated with implementing the scheme is making it unworkable due to the time-consuming pressure it will place on staff,” he said.

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