Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The creation of 30,000 new child care places is likely to lead to the creation of over 3,000 positions for child care practitioners. The opening of quality facilities will afford progression opportunities to trained staff. Such developments will contribute to the creation of a better child care sector in which people can work in well-appointed facilities and seek promotion opportunities in their present settings or in other services. Such factors are important if we are to sustain a high quality workforce in the sector.

The availability of tax benefits has also stimulated the availability of child care places. I understand that the child care directorate of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is concluding a survey of facilities in each county which will help the future planning of services. The survey will help us to assess Ireland's progress towards the Barcelona targets for child care provision, under which each EU member state aims to provide child care places for one third of children under the age of three and an early education place for 90% of those over the age of three who have not yet started compulsory education. Ireland is unusual among European countries in that children start primary school at a young age. The social practice in this country is to enrol children in junior infants when they are slightly younger than the age at which education is compulsory. The Barcelona targets are linked to labour market participation, especially by women.

The Government is attempting to increase and develop labour force participation in a manner that will enable women and mothers, and men and fathers, to balance family and work commitments. Increased female participation in the workforce is being encouraged through a range of measures, including family-friendly working arrangements, child care provision and changes to the tax and benefit systems. The improved macro-economic environment is helping to attract more people, including women, into the labour market. Other measures, including the introduction of a minimum wage, also help in that regard. Resources being spent on passive income support measures will be transferred to active measures to support the transition to employment, with financial support being provided on a sliding scale. There have been improvements in the retention of non-cash benefits. Job seekers have been assisted, for example by means of systematic identification, with the introduction of a preventative and activation plan. The operation of conditionality for unemployment payments has been made more efficient through closer integration between benefit payment and job placement services.

It should be noted that the rate of female participation in the workforce increased by approximately one third during the 1990s. Cultural changes, improving labour market conditions and rising educational attainment contributed to the increase.

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