Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

It is a pity the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, did not get an opportunity to extol the virtues and highlight the achievements of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006. I am one of the few people here who knows these achievements first hand because I am director of a non-profit community child care organisation, a representative of the Westmeath child care committee and I was also on the National Economic and Social Forum on child care provision.

I also know that the course of action in question here was not recommended in the review that took place. This is a daft idea that will sound the death knell of community child care provision throughout the country and I do not know from where it emanated. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Smith, listens to people so I know this idea could not have originated from him. He is too worldly wise and has a political antenna for such things. There are over 70 Fianna Fáil parliamentarians, not confined to rural areas, including Deputies Chris Andrews and Charlie O'Connor, who know this will sound the death knell of community child care provision.

I do not see where this idea emanated from as the existing equal opportunities childcare programme is excellent and benefited 62,000 children through 33 city and county child care providers. This change could destroy villages and there has been an eruption against it that crosses the urban-rural divide. Only four weeks ago the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Smith, opened the Little Blessings child care facility in my village of Ballynacargy that will provide for up to 50 people. I thank the Minister of State for visiting and for his words but I indicated to him that something was coming that could derail the process of child care provision.

The existing child care provisions give affordable, quality child care because the Health Service Executive is involved, public health nurses visit and environmental health officers visit. I have been a director of the child care facility in Ballynacargy for some years and no child was ever denied access. There is already a tiered structure in place in Ballynacargy and this is the case with child care providers throughout the country in places such as Kinnegad, Kenagh, Abbeylara and Kilbeggan. Providers of not-for-profit child care in this country had their antennae up because they had already implemented a tiered structure.

The structure the Minister for State has proposed will perpetuate a dependency culture wherein people will avoid employment for fear of losing their subventions. This is nonsense because the best route out of poverty is employment and I argued this as social welfare spokesman for the Labour Party. In Ballynacargy lone parents can leave their children in the child care facility and go to pursue computer courses and so on to gain experience for work. However, the proposed changes mean that as soon as a person enters employment he or she will lose his or her subvention. This is the antithesis of progressive thinking and I cannot believe it emanates from a Government in which even a single Fianna Fáil brain cell operates.

My colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is on top of this matter and I am sure that Deputy Mary O'Rourke will also refer to it. Little Blessings has been serving the rural village of Ballynacargy and surrounding communities since 1989 and it has a staffing grant of €82,000. Thankfully, the Department of Health and Children gave €420,000 in capital grants and it receives some other grants. Average income is €1,500 per week while child care for the unemployed is €25 to €30 and between €60 and €70 for the employed. The facility will face a shortfall of €75,000 next July because the alternative is to ask those paying between €60 and €70 to pay €160 and this will be the end of the centre. In other words a child care centre opened by the Minister of State a month ago will be closed by him next July when he will attend the funeral wearing a black armband.

For the facility in Ballynacargy to stay open fees will have to be doubled or it will revert back to being a playschool providing 20 places on a morning session with two members of staff. At the moment there are ten excellent members of staff there who trained themselves and got the necessary certifications. The wage bill is between €2,500 and €3,000 and it looks as though the members of staff may have to go. With a staffing grant, however, we can employ them and guarantee continuity of employment. The members of staff receive only the minimum wage, yet they do their jobs to the highest level with the assurance of certification. Are we to tell them that eight or nine must go because we cannot guarantee their wages? The Government is going to emasculate an area of policy that was excellent.

The current staffing grant is €82,000, the current income is €72,000 and the current food grant €11,000 so the total is €165,000. Under the proposed subvention allowance the facility will receive only €9,984. Added to income of €72,000 and a food grant of €19,000, it is clear the effect that will ensue; there will be a deficit of €72,000. The Minister of State is going to close the facility in Ballynacargy and every community child care facility in the country. I ask that he rethinks these changes because the facilities we now have were too hard won over the past six years. I am disappointed that anyone in Fianna Fáil would deprive people of something they have grown used to providing access to employment over the past six years. Are we to destroy all this in one fell swoop? I ask the Minister of State to go back to his officials and tell them to rethink because they are wrong on this issue and it is important it be evaluated now.

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