Two childcare providers have given their view on the now-scrapped childcare scheme for frontline workers.
It was due to start next Monday, and would have seen childcare professionals provide the service in family homes.
However providers had been warned their insurance would not cover them for COVID-19 claims if they took part in the scheme.
It was cancelled on Wednesday, after a low uptake by providers.
Claire Doyle is owner of Rathfarnham Day Care and Tender Years Creche in Naas.
She explained to Newstalk Breakfast why she did not sign up to the scheme.
"As a provider we felt that it was always unworkable.
"We didn't see how our staff going into homes - may not even be of our families - and us being completely liable for their breaks, their insurance, their working conditions - that was never going to be possible".
"I just think there was a lack of awareness from the Minister [Katherine Zappone] of the legislation and the regulations that they are responsible for enforcing.
"I just can't see how it was ever thought through.
"We wanted to help parents on the frontline - that's what childcare's for - it's for parents who work.
"So we were absolutely willing to do anything that was workable, but our staff going into individuals homes was just not going to work".
Karen Clince of of Tigers Childcare said some of her staff were willing to sign up to it - but there were also health concerns.
"We have 183 colleagues and we would have had eight colleagues that would have been willing to go into frontline workers homes.
"So although we would have encouraged, we wouldn't have gotten the feedback from our colleagues.
"And generally they just had concerns.
"They'd concerns in regards to going into homes where they couldn't stand over whether they were COVID free or not.
"And that was the biggest difficulty".
"Our colleagues are thinking of their own family situations and their own homes, and they just weren't willing to make those risks.
"Where[as], I suppose, they would have been much more enthusiastic of coming back into centres to provide that frontline care - where they knew the standards that we would have had or the policies and procedures that would have been in place to keep them safe".
Meanwhile the INMO has said funds that were to be used in the scheme should be reallocated to help pay for childcare for its members.
General-Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: "I think one of the clear statements the Government could make today is the money that was allocated for this can now - and must now - be reallocated to those who are paying over and above what they normally would in order to get to work".
"For example, we have a number of people who've said to us they have arrangements made where childcare workers have offered and have been more than willing to provide them with a service - but the cost of it is very high.
"We have already had examples of nurses who are paying just over €110 a day: that's a lot of money on a nurse's salary to get to work."
