Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I move the following Supplementary Estimate:

Vote 41 — Office of the Minister for Children (Supplementary Estimate).

(I) Supplementary Estimate of the amount required in the year ending 31 December 2007 for the provision of certain services in respect of children, including miscellaneous grants — €42.2 million.

(II) Subheads under which this Vote will be accounted for by the Office of the Minister for Health and Children.

Original Estimate	2007 Revised Estimate	Additional Sum Required
Current	Capital	Total	Current	Capital	Total
€000	€000	€000	€000	€000	€000	€000
A. — EARLY CHILDCARE PAYMENT	406,000	—	406,000	423,000	—	423,000	17,000
B.1 — EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES CHILDCARE PROGRAMME	56,700	56,646	113,346	56,700	92,946	149,646	36,300
GROSS TOTAL	53,300
Deduct:—
Surplus in:—
F. — APPROPRIATIONS-IN-AID	20,155	—	20,155	24,955	—	24,955	4,800
Net Total:—	48,500
Less:—
Savings on subheads B.2 (5,000,000) (a) and D. (1,300,000)	6,300
Net Total:—	42,200
Total Original Net Estimate, 2007, was	540,594
Add:—
Sum now required	42,200
Total	582,794
(a) €5,000,000 capital savings.

As the Minister for Health and Children with overall responsibility for the health group of Votes, I am seeking the approval of Dáil Éireann for a Supplementary Estimate of €42.2 million in respect of Vote 41 for the Office of the Minister for Children for the year ending 31 December 2007. I am pleased to inform the House that this additional requirement for Vote 41 will be fully offset by savings in Vote 39, the Office of the Minister for Health and Children, thereby ensuring that there will be no additional cost in 2007 to the Exchequer.

My Department has provided for Deputies background briefing on the Supplementary Estimate before them this evening. I propose that the Supplementary Estimate be approved to increase the provision for subheads A and B1 of Vote 41 to meet necessary expenditure commitments between now and the end of 2007. The gross additional spending requirement for these subheads is €53.3 million. However, this is reduced by savings of €6.3 million within other subheads of the Vote and further reduced by a buoyancy of €4.8 million in appropriations-in-aid. This results in a net requirement of €42.2 million.

Subhead A of Vote 41 provides for the early child care supplement. As Deputies will be aware, this is a payment made to parents of children aged under six years. It was introduced with effect from 1 April 2006 and is the responsibility of the Office of the Minister for Children. Eligibility for the payment is determined by the Department of Social and Family Affairs on the basis as entitlement to child benefit and that Department also administers the payments on behalf of the Office of the Minister for Children. The payments are made on a quarterly basis in arrears and amount to €1,000 per annum for each child aged under six years. A payment is also made for the quarter in which a child turns six years of age.

The supplement, together with increases in child benefit payments introduced by the Government in successive budgets, has improved the lot of families across society. The average family with two children under six years receives €5,840 in State supports per year. These supports are not means tested or taxable and are not dependent on whether a person is in employment. The Government wants to support parents in the choices they want to make about how they wish to raise their children, a hallmark of this Government's child care strategy.

As the early child care supplement is an entitlement for parents with children who qualify, it is a scheme based on the number of qualifying children aged under six years in any quarter and in a particular year. With the ongoing upward trend in population growth in recent years and continuing inward migration, the total amount of payments to be made in 2007 is expected to exceed the provision made in the Estimates by some €17 million. Therefore, while €406 million was provided in 2007 for the supplement, the actual expenditure is expected to arise is €423 million.

It is important to emphasis that the Government does not see child care in narrow terms. Parents make a variety of choices when it comes to their children's care. Some take time out of the workforce, some use childminders or friends and relatives and some use centre-based child care. It is not the role of the Government to tell parents which of these options is best for their children.

Rather it is our role to provide support towards the costs of appropriate choices made by parents. That is what this supplement does as a universal family benefit for parents of children under the age of six. Together with increased child benefit, the early child care supplement will greatly ease the financial burden on parents of younger children. For example, a family with three children under the age of six will receive direct financial support of over €8,800 in a full year. That is an increase of €7,300 since 1997. Even after inflation the supports to such families are nearly five times higher, in real terms, than they were in 1997.

Subhead B1 of Vote 41 provides for both capital and current funding under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-06, EOCP. The EOCP is an EU co-funded investment programme to develop a quality child care infrastructure. The programme commenced in January 2000 and will end in December this year. During the eight years of the programme it has had a total allocation of €499 million, of which €204.5 million was in respect of capital. By the end of 2006, €137 million had been spent on capital commitments under the programme. The 2007 Estimates allocation under this subhead was €113.346 million, which included a capital provision of €56.646 million. However, the level of capital commitments expected to be drawn down in 2007 is €93 million, giving rise to a capital overspend in this year of €36.3 million.

This shortfall arises from the sudden upward trend in 2006 and 2007 in the ratio of actual expenditure vis-À-vis commitments which could give rise to expenditure which had been entered into in the course of the eight-year programme. This trend was particularly evident in 2007, the final year of the programme. Capital expenditure under the programme was made in the form of grant aid to child care providers in both the community and private sectors to build and refurbish child care facilities to meet the needs of parents and their children for quality services. To date over 36,000 new child care places have been created under the programme and a further 26,000 additional places have been supported by it.

While private sector child care providers could apply for EOCP capital grant funding, the most significant expenditure was incurred in the large scale grant aid provided to community-based child care providers. Community groups could apply for funding of up to €1.4 million per project. Applications were approved in principle for funding and were then expected to finalise all the necessary steps to enter contract and proceed with building and draw-down of their grant. In addition to the significant scale of investment in this sector, the process of developing a project and bringing it through to the final stages of grant draw-down was generally lengthy for community based groups and, in some cases, was too problematic and some projects did not proceed.

Because of these factors and to maximise programme expenditure within the EU regulatory timeframes, a high rate of project approvals was made. In the closing stages of the programme, during 2006 and particularly in 2007, a significant number of projects are meeting the end of programme timeframes and, as a result, there is a very high level of grant draw-down in 2007, the final year of the programme. While this will result in an additional capital requirement in subhead B1 in 2007 of €36.3 million, the successful conclusion of these projects will ensure the achievement of the programme's targets and its success in developing a child care infrastructure.

The adoption of the EU co-funded equal opportunities child care programme and its inclusion in the National Development Plan 2000-2006 coincided with the identification of child care as an investment priority following the publication in 1999 of the Report of the Expert Working Group on Childcare.

I will spell out some of the achievements of the EOCP since 2000. Approximately €467 million has been spent on developing facilities, €198 million in capital and €269 million in current expenditure. Community and voluntary projects accounted for most of this spending. The total number of child care places receiving support under the programme, including more than 36,000 new places, is over 62,000 and nearly 3,000 child care employees are receiving support under the staffing grant scheme. A network of 33 city and county child care committees has been established and provides a local child care infrastructure which supports local providers and service users as well as supporting the child care programmes and providing accredited training. The types of services offered by grant beneficiaries include full day care crèches, pre-schools and playgroups, and after-school services.

Savings of €5 million arise under subhead B2, which provides funding for the national child care investment programme. The Minister with responsibility for children will respond to the debate. He was not in a position to move the Estimate because it must be moved by a Cabinet member.

See this speech in context