Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. The Mantua preschool child care facility in County Roscommon was established in September to carry out two functions. It was to provide a service for young children and their parents in the local communities, while also securing the long-term future of Mantua national school, which was originally built in 1872 and is one of Ireland's oldest primary schools. A few years ago the school was on a knife edge, as it was threatened with closure due to dwindling numbers. The local community looked at the issue and thought of providing child care facilities locally. The preschool would support those numbers at the school.

There was a spare room at the school that was not being used, so the community established a child care committee and, subsequently, the preschool facility in Mantua national school. The community raised funds for the projects, including over €2,000 at a function in the local pub. They have also held car boot sales, an auction and a church gate collection. They also submitted an application to Pobal for funding. The school in question is recognised as disadvantaged by the Department of Education and Science under the DEIS scheme.

The number of young families moving into the Mantua area is growing, which augurs well for the future of the child care facility and the school itself. The school applied for an interim staffing grant under the interim staffing measure of the NCIP, but it received a response from the Department that it had not demonstrated the ability to manage and sustain the service efficiently. The service is up and running since 3 September, with five children on board. A vacant classroom in an existing school is being used, and a modern child care service is being provided. It is being managed by an experienced child care leader who is being paid from the funds that have been raised by the local community. This small, rural community has raised over €2,000 to get this facility up and running. The parents and the committee have told me that their funds are almost exhausted and they will have to close this Christmas unless the Minister rescinds the decision that was made.

They also plan to expand the existing service to include an after-school service, but they cannot cater for that without the provision of funding from the Department. The future of the school itself is in doubt if this funding is not provided. There are several examples in my constituency of schools with small roll numbers, but they have managed to maintain and even increase numbers by putting child care facilities in vacant classrooms. In this way, they have supported local education provision.

In their response to the local community in Mantua, departmental officials stated that a new scheme would be coming into place from 1 January 2008 and that community representatives should contact the county child care committee to make an application. The difficulty is that this facility will close at Christmas if the school does not get an interim funding grant from the Department to keep it going until it can apply under the new scheme. We have been consistently told that the objective of the scheme is to support disadvantaged communities. I ask the Minister of State to provide the interim funding to keep the facility going.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The programme for Government and the progress of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 and the national child care investment programme are confirmation of the Government's commitment to developing child care services to support the child care needs of parents. The NCIP 2006-2010 has a funding allocation of €575 million and aims to create an additional 50,000 new child care places. It is expected that approximately 22,000 of these places will be in the private sector and 28,000 in the community and not-for-profit sector. Twenty per cent of the overall places will be for children in the three to four age group and will provide an early childhood care and education focus.

The NCIP programme incorporates a number of key objectives. It will increase the supply and quality of early childhood care and education services across the board. It will also support families in breaking the cycle of disadvantage and will provide a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care that is centred on the needs of the child. Both the EOCP and NCIP have a combined budget of almost €1.1 billion and are projected to create over 90,000 child care places, which are provided either through community-based and not-for-profit child care groups or by private providers.

When taken into account with other child care related measures, such as the increases in paid and unpaid maternity leave, the introduction of the early childhood supplement worth €1,000 per year per child under six, and tax relief for child minders, no one can doubt that the Government is giving this issue the priority it deserves. Many child care services throughout Roscommon have benefited from grant assistance under the EOCP and the NCIP. To date, funding of over €10 million has been approved for child care in Roscommon, supporting the creation of 766 new child care places and supporting over 714 existing places throughout the county.

The group in question applied for interim support funding under the NCIP and was declined in September 2007, as its application had not demonstrated sufficient ability to manage and sustain the service efficiently and, therefore, did not meet the requirements of the NCIP interim support scheme. The group was invited to contact its local county child care committee, should it wish to apply for funding under the new community child care subvention scheme, which will come into effect in January 2008. The group requested a review of this decision and its request, along with any details provided by the group, have been forwarded to Pobal, which oversees the day-to-day management of the programmes on behalf of my office, for an assessment which will be considered by the programme appraisal committee. That committee will make its recommendation to the Secretary General who in turn will make the final decision, and the group will be informed of the decision. It would be improper of me to prejudge the outcome of that process in advance of the final decision.

The interim support scheme under the NCIP was introduced as an interim measure, pending the introduction of the new community child care subvention scheme, to facilitate groups which were unable to meet the contractual deadline of December 2006 for funding under the EOCP staffing support scheme. Under the EOCP, targeted support was provided for community-based not-for-profit child care providers through the staffing support grant scheme. The community child care subvention scheme under the NCIP is the successor programme to the EOCP staffing grant and will be introduced on 1 January 2008.

This scheme has been allocated €153 million over the next three years, representing a 16% increase in funding over the EOCP staffing scheme. Under the new scheme, services will be grant aided according to the service they provide and the profile of the parents who benefit. In turn, the subvention received by the services will be reflected in the reduced fees for parents who qualify as disadvantaged under the scheme. It is hoped that the new scheme will provide an effective framework for the continued targeting of additional resources towards disadvantaged parents and their children, while continuing to support community child care services generally.

The more detailed and comprehensive data which has been generated by the new scheme will be analysed by officials in my office between now and the end of December. As outlined at the launch of the scheme last July and at regional seminars held by my officials since then, this data will allow any adjustments necessary to secure the best outcomes for child care services and for disadvantaged parents and their children, and will be considered by the Government in early 2008 and well in advance of the commencement of the new funding levels in July 2008. I asked the review committee to analyse further the data submitted by the group and to make a decision as soon as possible on the application.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I hope the Minister of State looks sympathetically on it.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am sure the officials will analyse it in great detail.