Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

Last Friday, the Minister of State, Deputy Smith, was the guest of honour at a child care conference in the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan. He spent 45 minutes speaking of the need for quality child care, on which all Deputies agree. He spent ten minutes on the subvention issue, much of it claiming there was a misinformation campaign. I assure the Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, that it is not a misinformation campaign.

Our excellent community child care facilities, which include pre-school and crèche services, were set up with the help of significant amounts of voluntary work and EU funding in many towns and villages. They are part-funded by the Government as a means of providing community affordable child care, but essential funding will now be changed, that is, there will be cutbacks. Parents will be means tested. If they do not qualify, child care staffing grants will be reduced accordingly. These proposals will result in a considerable reduction in income for community child care facilities. They will be forced to increase their prices. The shortfall in funding must be paid for by non-qualifying families in the form of increased fees. The shortfall will also mean job losses.

Not-for-profit facilities do not know whether they will be able to recruit permanent staff. The facility at Drum, a small and mainly Protestant community, does not have a hope of getting started if the Minister's proposals are approved. However, the Government gave it a grant despite having full knowledge of the facility's structure and future needs. The facility at Mullaghmatt, a housing estate in a difficult area of Monaghan town, will lose €25,000. This will have major implications for the scheme. The Ballybay scheme has not even got off the ground. Despite there being more than €1 million in Government and EU grants, there is no long-term future.

The Minister of State should withdraw the proposals. Let us keep the current scheme until the end of next year at least. We should consider the proposals' implications for child care and those employed in that sector. We should take a common sense approach. I met some of the senior executives in the Civil Service, who understand that what has been done is unworkable and must be restructured.

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