Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I commend Deputy Shatter on tabling this motion. The Government must radically modify the new proposed child care subvention scheme which it intends to become fully operational from 1 July 2008. This new scheme will impose large financial pressures on many parents by increasing the expense of child care. It will force some parents to leave employment and become dependent on social welfare.

In the Dublin North-East constituency, many crèches will be forced to close. Today, I met members of TARGET which operates a child care crèche facility in Donaghmede. They are deeply concerned with the proposed new scheme. Up to 600 people use the facilities operated by TARGET. It is a community facility, providing several services including adult education, a local community employment programme, English language classes for foreign nationals and community child care. People access its facilities across north Dublin including Balbriggan and Clontarf. TARGET runs a community child care facility which supports people who use its free counselling and literacy service. The facility is free of charge and enables people to use the education services operated by TARGET.

TARGET has been running successfully for the past 13 years. Its child care staff includes a supervisor and one child care worker while five other employees work in the child care facility on community employment schemes. The EOCP grant helped TARGET to build up these facilities. Due to limitations on the size of its child care facilities, it will be impossible for TARGET to enrol a sufficient number of children in receipt of subvention to facilitate the payment of the two salaries covered by the EOCP grant.

Under the proposed new scheme, it will be impossible for TARGET to judge at the beginning of the year its annual income from child care as children come and go. Attendance, for example, always drops off during the summer and this will make it impossible to ensure staff have sufficient job security.

Under the scheme, TARGET will have to let go its crèche supervisor and child care worker. Its adult education classes and its literacy classes will not be able to continue. Up to 24 people will become unemployed along with several teachers and counsellors. The community will lose four valuable community services that have been working for it for over 15 years. Parenting skills classes, special needs services and English language classes for foreign nationals will have to end. This is just one example of how the new scheme will affect one existing service. This will be replicated in similar facilities across the country.

A form of financial support for community child care is badly needed. The current system is working and I ask the Minister not to tamper with it. He must extend the application of the existing subvention scheme until 31 December 2008.

I call all Members to support Deputy Shatter's motion to retain the existing subvention scheme.

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