Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and compliment Deputy Troy on bringing before the House this worthy motion on child care issues. Colleagues on both sides of the House have spoken about special needs and early intervention provision. Access to speech and language therapy, early intervention and other services are major issues for people. This will affect children in the long term. The withdrawal of these services is also shortsightedness on the part of the State in that it will result in a greater cost to the State in the longer term.

We should in the context of this debate be seeking to honour the Constitution and, in particular, children with special needs. Colleagues have spoken about the contributions of various Ministers over the past 14 years in relation to children. Much good work has been and is being done throughout the country, particularly by the community not-for-profit child care facilities constructed under the aegis of the Department of Justice and Equality but which come within the remit of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The voluntary bodies which put in place these facilities countrywide should be applauded.

I would like to draw a particular concern I have to the Minister's attention. The community not-for-profit organisations are providing a service on behalf of the State. Given the manner in which many of the community projects were established, almost all of them attract charitable status. However, owing to a glitch in the Valuation Act some of them are exempted from rates and others are not. This issue needs to be addressed. Two community projects of which I am aware are being hounded by the county councils and threatened with court cases and so on in respect of €25,000 or €30,000 in rates that have accumulated on their premises. As I stated earlier, these are not-for-profit organisations that are providing community services for hard pressed parents and are facilitating the State's free preschool year. This matter needs to be addressed in a pragmatic way, with perhaps an amendment in this regard being made to the Valuation Act to ensure these facilities are exempted from rates. The attitude of the courts and local authorities in pursuing these bodies leaves a lot to be desired. The fundamental issue is that despite these organisations being granted charitable status by the Revenue Commissioners and regulatory authorities based on the memorandum of understandings under which they were established, they are being pursued for rates. This issue needs to be addressed.

The two issues of concern for me are the rates issue, which is a major issue for communities and must be addressed, and the provision of early intervention for children with special needs. Some of the children who were part of the early intervention programme established in Cork in 1998-99 through the CABAS project went on to mainstream primary and second level schools and completed their leaving certificates. This would not have been possible but for the CABAS project and the valuable contributions of former Ministers, the late Brian Lenihan, Mary Hanafin, Barry Andrews and Brendan Smith. A whole raft of issues were dealt with by them including child care costs and so on, following which the county child care committees were established.

It is important the Valuation Act is amended to provide for an exemption from rates for the community not-for-profit child care facilities. We must also ensure that children who need early intervention can access it at the earliest possible time and that they do not have to be corresponding with public representatives or the ombudsman in respect of their entitlements.

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