Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Troy. I wish to put the facts on the table. All capital funding for child care services was cut in 2008 and no new child care capital funding was made available in that year, 2009, 2010 or 2011. It was not made available until 2012 and 2013 when I reopened the child care capital funding schemes. Absolutely no capital went into child care in recent years. Fortunately I was able to reverse this situation two years ago.

Given the extensive infrastructure that existed, it was absolutely clear there would be a need to provide capital support to public and private child care providers, which is what I have done. In 2012 I provided €6 million in capital grant funding to 290 private and community not-for-profit child care services. The 2012 funding provided support to child care settings to address remedial maintenance, renovation work on buildings, and equipment for early education and child care services. It was very much welcomed by public and private providers. In 2013 I provided €2.75 million in capital grant funding to 671 private and community not-for-profit child care services. This covered small grants for accessibility, maintenance work, natural outdoor spaces and critical works to ensure buildings are fit for purpose under the child care regulations.

Having operated different schemes in 2012 and 2013 addressing different areas of need, and having learned from each scheme, I decided that for 2014 we would focus on another area in need of help, namely, the repair, maintenance and upgrade of community and not-for-profit child care services, which clearly needed support. On 12 February Deputy Troy tabled a parliamentary question asking me to introduce large-scale capital grants for child care, particularly for the community sector. The Deputy recognised that the community sector needs capital funding, and there is no question about this.

In introducing various capital programmes I had a range of different criteria for each year. This year I am focusing on community child care services, which play a major role in ensuring that disadvantaged and low-income families have access to high-quality and affordable child care as they provide access to the community child care subvention scheme, for which the Department provides approximately €45 million. We need to invest in these facilities to ensure they can be maintained in the necessary way.

I have announced that later this year I will launch another scheme for next year. This announcement will include the public and private sectors. I am aware of the difficulties experienced by providers in the private sector, but at present it is vital that this funding is directed towards addressing the immediate issues in the community sector. As I pointed out, there is considerable investment in the sector already and we must protect it so the service is maintained for those who are dependent on it. Later this year I will announce further capital investment, which will be open to both sectors.

I received feedback from the sector following the disbursal of the capital grants last year that amounts were needed to deal with structural issues in the community child care sector and that it would need this type of investment to ensure the facilities were up to the standards we expect.

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