Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As the House will be aware, organised child care facilities in the sense they have developed is a relatively recent phenomenon. We have come from a position where we had virtually no places six or seven years ago. As Deputy Bruton stated, if employer provided child care facilities are to be an increasing feature of how child care is delivered, attitudinal shifts will be required on the part of employers. Incentivising them does not get away from the fact that there are some who are interested in the salary sacrifice in providing the benefits that would accrue to them without taking on, as Deputy Bruton stated, the wider corporate responsibility of helping employees to obtain child care facilities close to their place of work with the obvious added convenience. As I stated, it is a relatively recent societal issue when one looks at how employers have viewed their responsibilities to date and a change is required.

When the public policy objective is primarily to increase the supply of child care places, it requires employers to be involved in the management, provision or financing of places. Otherwise, they are simply looking for a monetary solution which suits them and could well suit employees but does not suit the Exchequer and which may not add to the supply of child care places. Through such an assist mechanism for a stratum of employees who have sufficient income to consider it, it may displace others who have provided child care places in the first place. That is the reason there is a need for direct involvement by employers in order to meet the overriding public policy objective which is to provide extra places. Given the figure of 10% Deputy Bruton found in his constituency survey, let us hope more employers will see the benefit in becoming more directly involved. If they see their responsibility as being broader than the profit and loss account, they will certainly have far more satisfied and committed employees. In fact, it would enhance their profitability when account is taken of the capital allowances available in meeting the cost of the child care provision. These are issues which require an attitudinal change. We need to challenge employers.

From a standing start, the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006, an EU co-funded programme, has exceeded all targets to date. More than 32,000 places have been created. A further 24,500 have been supported with grant aid allocations, amounting to almost €500 million in the past six years, a significant commitment by the Government.

The new national child care strategy announced in budget 2006 is a multiannual one. The Government was well aware of the difficulties being faced by many parents and families in securing affordable child care. To this end, we have increased the choices and options available to parents. We have developed a five-year strategy which is being implemented at a cumulative cost of €2.65 billion over five years. This is a significant commitment of resources to address the supply and cost of child care places and involves the following. The early child care supplement will benefit over 280,000 families. The period of maternity leave has been increased, with a four-week extension for both paid and unpaid maternity leave introduced in 2006 and a further four-week extension for both paid and unpaid maternity leave this year, bringing the duration of paid maternity leave up to 26 weeks and unpaid maternity leave to 16 weeks. A major new multi-annual national child care investment programme has been put in place and the Office of the Minister for Children under the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has been given overall responsibility in this area. The national child care investment programme will support the creation of an additional 50,000 child care places between 2006 and 2010. To date, more than 900 capital grant applications amounting to over €170 million have been received and a total of 17,000 child care workers will be trained over the next five years to complement the roll-out of these new places. Last year, we allocated €94 million for child care places, which supported the creation of more than 8,500 new places and enhanced almost 2,600 existing places. This year, we further increased the allocation by 50%, or €48 million, to a total of €142 million, which will fund additional child care places over the course of the year. That is a fair indication of the commitment this Government is making to continue increasing and enhancing child care services.

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