Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

I am taking the Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

To respond to Deputy Naughten, it is first necessary to give a brief explanation of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 and the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 for which the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is responsible.

An Agreed Programme for Government, the progress of the EOCP and the NCIP are confirmation of the Government's commitment to developing child care services to support the child care needs of parents, with a particular emphasis on those who may be in employment, or education or training to prepare for employment. The EOCP has both an equal opportunities and a social inclusion perspective and aims to increase the supply of centre-based child care places by 55%, or 31,300 places, by programme end. This target has been exceeded, with some 34,000 additional places already created by the programme.

In order to build on the success of the EOCP, the Government introduced the NCIP to cover the period 2006-10. This programme will build on the success of the EOCP and incorporates a number of key objectives. It will increase the supply and quality of early childhood care and education services across the board. It will support families in breaking the cycle of disadvantage and provide a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care that is centred on the needs of the child.

The decision of the Government to create a major new investment programme immediately, rather than wait until the previous programme had expired, is evidence of its commitment to drive progress in the area of child care. The NCIP 2006-10 has a funding allocation of €575 million and aims to create an additional 50,000 new child care places. It is expected that approximately 22,000 of these places will be in the private sector and 28,000 in the community not-for-profit sector. Some 20% of the overall places will be for children in the three to four age group and will provide an early childhood care and education focus.

When taken with the other child care related measures introduced by this Government, such as increases in paid and unpaid maternity leave, the introduction of the early childhood supplement worth €1,000 per year per child under six, and tax relief for childminders, no one can doubt that it is giving this issue the priority it deserves.

I turn now to the group in question. Deputy Naughten may be aware that the Kilronan parent, toddler and playschool group was approved €25,554 in capital grant assistance under the EOCP in March 2002 as a contribution towards the capital costs of the project.

From November 2000 to date, the group has been approved staffing grants under EOCP totalling some €85,000. Recently the group requested additional funding towards the staffing costs of the service. However, the Secretary General agreed with the recommendation of the programme appraisal committee that the application should be declined on this occasion as the group had not met the reporting requirements of previous funding which had been approved and, therefore, had not sufficiently demonstrated its capacity to implement the requirements attaching to further funding.

The Kilronan parent, toddler and playschool group appealed this decision to the child care directorate of my office on 7 February 2007, and all details were forwarded to Pobal which oversees the day-to-day management of the programmes, for an assessment which will be considered by the programme appraisal committee in due course. That committee will make its recommendation to the Secretary General who in turn will make the final decision — and the group will be informed of the decision.

Many child care services throughout Roscommon have benefited from grant assistance under the EOCP and the NCIP. To date, funding of over €9 million has been approved for child care in Roscommon, which is supporting the creation of over 748 new child care places and over 714 existing places throughout the county. It is only fair to emphasise that the EOCP has been central to the recent development of child care services in Ireland and with its successor, the NCIP, will continue to flourish under the careful stewardship of this Government.

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