Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

Anyone who has reared children should not need a "heads-up" on this issue. The NCIP community child care subvention scheme which was in place from 2000 to 2007 had a capital programme element but also provided a grant for every qualifying child. There was some talk about this around two years ago, when the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, former Deputy Michael McDowell — I can never understand why the scheme was administered by that Department — decided to change the conditions under which people qualified. There was such an uproar that those plans were dropped.

From January 2008 we will have a new scheme which will be in place for two years until 2010 but it will be so narrow in its focus that it will ensure women and men — there are some single parents who are men — will need to rely on social welfare or will be forced to take their children out of child care. One will have to be in receipt of social welfare or family income supplement before one will be able to get this grant for child care. That leaves an entire group of people outside the remit of this scheme. There will be those who can afford to pay, and the middle group of people who are just about surviving and whose children can receive child care with this subsidy. On the other hand there will be children whose parents are in receipt of social welfare and, therefore, fall within the scheme.

We all know that for children to grow up into worthwhile adult members of society there must be a combination of all of the sectors in society and they need to contact people in other strands of society. We have seen child care schemes which have enabled women to participate in society by returning to education or even part-time work.

However, from January we will have a system whereby people who can afford to put their children into child care will continue to do so, while on the other side of the fence there will be people who will qualify because they are in receipt of social welfare. That is not what child care is all about and it is most definitely not the intention of the child care community. I appeal to the Minister to change his mind on this scheme.

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