Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand that subsidised child care is not just available in the mornings. After-school care is available under the child care employment and training support scheme and I presume that child care is also available. I will check the position for the Deputy. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Reilly, announced a major review of this area in recent days.

When I used the word "incentive", I was not referring to people needing incentives to attend courses. We actually want people to engage with such courses. In the boom times, however, additional incentives were sometimes required in order to encourage people to re-engage.

It was felt unnecessary to continue with this in recent years and, in fact, we could not afford to make such an incentive available. It was never meant to subsidise the cost of attending the course.

I accept there is an additional cost associated with attending the course, and that why there are child care and travel expenses. Perhaps some of the Deputy's clients could avail of these. The overall cost of attending is a barrier. I have given the Deputy a commitment here that SOLAS's further education and training strategy will identify and address the barriers to participation on the courses and examine them as part of the review. I will ensure the case in question is considered also.

In general, over 200,000 people are involved in further education and training courses. There are a range of subsidies and supports for them all. The one in question applied across the board. The incentive had to be removed for the groups in Carlow and Dundalk. The additional incentive was removed across the board a number of years ago. People had probably become reliant on it but, as I stated, it was removed only for new participants on the course. That is my understanding. We will have it reviewed under the SOLAS review. I hope that will help.

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