Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I thank all Members for their contributions and I will respond to specific issues raised by speakers and comment on some of the wider issues raised.

A number of accusations have been made about the new scheme. These include the claim that it will lead to the segregation of children, with only disadvantaged children in community-based services. The EOCP staffing support grant was only available to community services in disadvantaged areas whereas the new scheme will be available to all such services, irrespective of their location. This will facilitate more disadvantaged parents in accessing subsidised child care and will improve the social mix.

It is untrue that the new scheme will penalise working parents, that it is a poverty trap or that it will target parents on social welfare who do not need child care services. As the Minister of State, Deputy Smith, said, the scheme has started by identifying the two most disadvantaged categories of parents, namely, those in receipt of social welfare payments and those in receipt of the family income supplement. Where these parents avail of full day care services, they will still have to pay the cost reduced by the subvention. Therefore, it is clear that these parents will generally be people engaged in back to work or community employment schemes, people who are in training or education, lone parents and young mothers completing secondary education.

If the new scheme did not target subsidised child care for these parents to lift them out of the poverty trap, Deputies in this House would be calling for the scheme to be amended to do exactly what it is doing. It is crucial that parents in receipt of social welfare are given the opportunity to access affordable pre-school services for their children and give them the best possible educational start in life.

Working parents on low incomes represent the other key target group of the scheme. This will mean that as the scheme stands, a family with two children with a net income of €550 per week will qualify for the child care subvention. This is well above the minimum wage income, at €346 for a 40-hour week, and the average industrial wage, at €615 per week. The Minister of State has repeatedly stated that parents on low income will be beneficiaries of the scheme.

For smaller services in rural areas, the cost price per place is higher as a result of the scale of their service. This is an issue the Minister of State and his officials have flagged for some time as one to be addressed in the enhancement of the scheme.

Department officials told groups at regional seminars that they were aware that the minimum staffing ratios under the child care regulations place a disproportionate burden on such services and that an amendment to the scheme to address that would be considered when the data were received. I cannot pre-empt the Government decision that will enhance the scheme, but the Minister of State, Deputy Smith, has discussed this matter extensively with his officials. He is happy that it will address that issue in a way that will take on board the anomalous positions of these services and that will remain consistent with the overall framework of the scheme.

I hope that the assurances given to this House by the Minister of State will meet some of the concerns expressed by Deputies during this debate. The new scheme will be finalised in early 2008 and will continue to target support for community services, but in a more effective and transparent way. Funding will be approved until the end of 2010, subject to minor adjustments from year to year based on the parental returns and staff should be no less secure under the new scheme as a result.

The community child care subvention scheme provides an effective and equitable framework to support community child care services and target disadvantaged parents and their children. The Minister of State is committed to completing the process of bringing this scheme into full effect in July 2008 following its final consideration by the Government, on the basis of the comprehensive data analysis which he hopes to have completed in early 2008. On this basis, I commend the Government amendment to the House.

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