Vol. 543 No. 2
664 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason he failed to give a definitive response to continued representations on behalf of a person (details supplied) in County Meath regarding child care policy. [26108/01]
The Deputy should have received a final reply to the representations which issued to him on 25 October 2001. The representations concerned referred to the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-2006 and also to the Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations, 1996, and Childcare (Pre-School Services) (Amendment) Regulations, 1997, and their impact on existing child care services.
In preparing the final reply, the officials in my Department's equal opportunities child care unit wished to include confirmation of an announcement from the Department of Health and Children regarding a review of the regulations referred to in the representations, which has relevance to the subject matter of the representations. The Department of Health and Children announced in October 2001 that a review of the current regulations will take place in the coming months and that a working group has been established to carry out this review.
