James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

We must consider two aspects to this motion on the Supplementary Estimate 2007, Vote 41, the early child care payment and the equal opportunities programme. The early child care supplement was announced by the Government in 2005 and was intended to help parents to meet the costs of child care in Ireland because everybody acknowledged that in this country child care was becoming a significant expense for parents, particularly those of young families who also had to deal with ever-rising house prices. It came into effect on 1 April 2006 and is a direct, non-taxable payment, to be paid at the end of each quarter for each child under the age of six who receives child benefit. The payment amounts to €250 per quarter, which is €1,000 per year for each eligible child.

Although the Department of Health and Children is responsible for the scheme, for convenience it is paid through the Department of Social and Family Affairs. For 2007 the total cost of the payment was expected to be €406 million. The Office of the Minister for Children calls for an additional €19 million because it did not anticipate the strong upward trend in population growth for children under the age of six and it will give a total of €425 million, although the Minister referred to €423 million.

We do not have the CSO figures for the number of births to date in 2007, but I read in the newspapers that we expect an 11% increase and that there will be 68,000 births this year. Given that the average birth rate has been 60,000 per annum in recent years, that means there are 368,000 children under the age of six, and at €1,000 each, that totals €368 million. Bearing in mind that this provision was brought in for children who live in the State regardless of their nationality, is the additional €57 million for children who reside outside the State? From the time of this announcement the Government was unaware of the implications of payment being linked to child benefit and therefore being available to children not living in Ireland. Given that the supplement was designed to meet the cost of child care in Ireland, a provision should have been introduced to ring-fence the money for child care in Ireland. This has not happened and apparently it will not be done.

There has been significant confusion about the cost of this scheme for children not resident in Ireland. During Leaders' Questions on 31 January 2006 the Taoiseach said the cost would be €1 million. A month later, in February, when responding to a parliamentary question, the Minister, Deputy Brennan, said the cost might be €2.7 million. On 26 April the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said a cost of €10.8 million would have accrued by the end of 2006 while on 22 May the Minister, Deputy Brennan, said the cost could be up to €4 million. During Leaders' Questions on 23 May the Taoiseach said it could cost €9.5 million. There is total confusion and this does little to imbue us with confidence that if we vote for this supplement the money will go to where it should go. We do not know how much will go out of Ireland. At a time of cutbacks, this presents a significant difficulty for us.

We have no difficulty with the payment being made for all children under the age of six, regardless of nationality, who are resident in Ireland and whose families face increased costs, as opposed to children resident elsewhere, where the costs are much lower. How much of this €406 million and €19 million is for children not resident in Ireland? What checks are in place to ensure that fraud and illegitimate claims are not being made? It is hard enough to prevent it happening in this country so trying to prevent it happening across Europe will be extremely difficult.

The other part of this Estimate relates to the equal opportunities child care programme and provides for an increase of €36.3 million in capital funding. Fine Gael supports the provision of additional funding for the building, expansion or improvement of community-based private child care facilities but it is concerned about other provisions in the Estimate. The current child care subvention scheme under the equal opportunities child care programme targets support at community-based, not-for-profit child care providers, which were awarded grant aid towards staffing costs to allow them to charge parents limited fees for child care. This scheme was essentially designed as a back-to-work scheme and funding for it was continued to the end of 2007, no doubt because this was an election year.

Subsequent to the election, the Government announced a new scheme, the community child care subvention scheme, to support community child care services under the national child care investment programme. Whereas funding under the earlier scheme provided universal supports for all parents whose children attended not-for-profit crèches and child care services, the new scheme applies only to a limited category of parents. This means in practice that parents in receipt of social welfare payments or participating in community employment will benefit from a €80 weekly subvention in respect of full day care and parents in receipt of family income supplement will benefit from a €30 weekly subvention in respect of such care, both with pro rata reductions in respect of shorter service hours. A further subvention of €30 weekly will be paid for the subvented child where the child is under one year old.

Many parents in employment and not in receipt of social welfare will find themselves excluded under the new scheme from benefiting from subventions currently paid under the existing scheme, as will many parents in employment who are in receipt of modest earnings but do not qualify for family income supplement. As a result, many people will not be able to afford child care and might decide to leave the workforce to mind their children at home, causing many not-for-profit crèches to close and resulting in job losses and the loss of this vital community service. In Balbriggan, a town that is regularly in the news with regard to its lack of school places, a community voluntary group is in the process of applying for €1.3 million to provide a 37 place voluntary community crèche. The group is wondering if it will have enough customers for the crèche when the cutback in funding comes into force.

Those employed in community child care groups fear for the future of their jobs. Moreover, due to the uncertainty of their future income, groups at present providing services cannot recruit new employees with any contractual security as they do not know whether they will be able to pay future salaries from 1 July next. Although in theory the new scheme starts in 2008, the Department has provided for a transitional period up to 1 July 2008 which will be used to monitor and review its impact, on the basis of background information which has been sought from people who provide child care services under the existing scheme. Until 1 July 2008, the existing scheme will continue to apply for the purpose of providing subventions and, as a consequence, until that date no parent will be disadvantaged.

The widespread concern about the Government's proposed new scheme has been made clear to the Minister. Major changes must be made to it. The scheme is intended to become operational after 1 July 2008. I and my colleagues will vigorously pursue this issue.

Inaccurate forecasting and information have been a feature of this Government over the past ten years. We still do not have a final figure for what PPARS cost. Was it €180 million, €200 million or €220 million? The over 70s medical card scheme cost far more than was projected. The cost of the GMS medicine scheme over-runs every year. We do not know the cost of the nursing homes refund scheme. Only 3,600 claims have been completed, offers have been made in another 6,000 cases and another 20,000 claims have been made, with the potential of another 30,000. The work of this repayment scheme is due to be completed by next October. This is mind boggling. We were given two different answers in two days to questions about the cost of administering the scheme. We were told it would be €15 million by the HSE but another group informed us that it would be €23 million. It is unbelievable. The HSE over-runs by €220 million. It cannot count or supply enough school places.

The Government cannot count and when it gets things wrong, the public suffers. Nobody in the Government or the public service pays. The orthopaedic unit in Navan is closing for the month of December, with a resultant loss of 150 operations. In the past year Beaumont Hospital has lost 22,000 bed places because patients could not be placed in the community, where facilities were available. That is the equivalent of two 30 bed units being closed for the year. In Kenmare, a 14 bed unit was promised ten years ago but it has still not been provided. The accident and emergency departments at Tralee General Hospital and St. Vincent's Hospital are operating with half the required number of staff. Cancer services have been closed at 13 hospitals, while there are cutbacks at Sligo General Hospital and in Galway. The list is lengthy. Contrast this with pay hikes of 17% to 27% for the Ministers and HSE officials who were responsible for the PPARS debacle, as well as €4.8 million in unsanctioned expenditure last year. Along with the overruns of €220 million, it beggars belief.

We oppose this Estimate. We support the expansion of not-for-profit crèches in the community and the payment of the early child care supplement for children resident in Ireland, regardless of their nationality.

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