Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I do not know whether the Minister is serious about the changes in the child care subvention scheme. Up to now, child care facilities were co-funded under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006, but this will change at the end of the year. It is the responsibility of the Government to continue to fund this scheme in the manner in which it is currently being funded. If the Minister states that there is a 16% increase in funding, could he please explain, when he arrives, where this money is going? The reality on the ground does not reflect this. At present, parents are paying €32 per week for four days or €40 for five days of child care. Those same parents, if they are not on social welfare, will now pay €100 for a five-day week from July next. Apart from the hardship this extra expense will cause parents, there are two other negatives. First, as many of those community run child care facilities were set up to facilitate a parent, usually the mother, to get back in to the workforce, some of those may be on wages just above the threshold and will not be able to afford the increase in costs. In many disadvantaged areas of Connemara and Galway city those community based facilities enable mothers to return to the workforce and this change in funding will have a negative effect on such parents.

The second real danger is that with the increased cost many parents will no longer be able to afford to send their children to these child care facilities with the result that the facilities will close, parents will lose the benefit of being able to go back to work and the children will be deprived of the learning experience available in the facilities. I have personal experience of the benefit of such facilities in my constituency in Lettermullan, Lettermore, Clifden and Merview on the west side of Galway city. Many of those community child care facilities are run on a non-profit basis. My advice to the Minister of State is if it is not broken, do not fix it.

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