Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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In October 2007 a state-of-the-art child centre facility was opened in Ballybunion, County Kerry at a cost of €682,400. Additional funding was provided for equipment and facilities in the centre, bringing the total investment to approximately €800,000. The money was provided by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform under EOCP funding and the project was five years in gestation and involved a considerable amount of voluntary input from local parents and members of the community. The centre received a grant initially, which was a contribution towards its staffing costs. This money was granted through the old scheme, which will be finished by the end of June and is to be replaced by a new system known as the community child care subvention scheme. Under this scheme the level of grant aid will be based on the number of disadvantaged parents using the service as well as the level of service. In return, the centre is expected to discount its fees by the amount of subvention it receives for each qualifying parent. Under the scheme disadvantaged parents are categorised as those in receipt of social welfare payments, on community employment schemes or family income supplement.

There are four subvention levels. Band A includes social welfare recipients and band B family income supplement, FIS, recipients. The people who do not fall into either category are in band D, and these are in full-time employment. They are not subsidised and have to pay the full costs. In response to the outcry from parents and child care providers when the new scheme was proposed originally, the OMC put band C in place, which offers reduced fees to people on low incomes who are marginally above the FIS threshold. As a result of the new changes, the people in employment — most of whom must travel 20 miles to Tralee or Listowel to work — will now have to pay €180 for a place. It was €120, so this is an increase of €60, which is considerable, for a full place. Also there is an increase from €45 to €90 for a preschool place — and the equivalent for shorter hours. There are few families in the locality in a position to pay this type of fee, so that the whole system including the staffing of the centre will not be sustainable.

The parents in band D who have contacted me will have to leave their children at home to be looked after by childminders. They might be able to pay a lesser rate to grandparents, perhaps, or in-laws, but it is not satisfactory because this particular centre is one of the finest of its type in the country. I do not know whether the Minister of State, Deputy Hoctor or her colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews is responsible for it. It is very progressive as regards the initiatives being pursued and those it has introduced. For example, there is an initiative entitled "Learn through Play", which is based on the Department of Education and Science's new curriculum, and it is operated very successfully. The parents, however, are now looking at the prospect of not being able to afford the child care payments. As I said, they have few options — either to leave the child or children at home or give up their jobs to get back on a qualifying band. It does not appear to make any sense, whatsoever.

I do not know what type of response the Minister of State will give. I asked a former Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, to visit the centre and even officially open it and use it as an example of how other centres might operate. It does not make sense that a centre opened last October at a cost of €800,000 could now close this October. A survey has shown that the profile of those due to avail of the centre next October are mostly in employment, so they will not receive subsidies. The Acting Chairman will appreciate this.

This is just the first of many stories that will be raised in this House. I know that for a fact because there are similar child care facilities across the country that face this type of problem, and it has not struck home yet. Obviously, Deputies have not been contacted to date. Certainly, this is something that must be addressed. I look forward to the Minister of State's response and I hope she can offer some solution. Otherwise there will be a major problem and it will leave a significant deficit in child care facilities right across Ireland.

Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Barry Andrews.

The main supports the Government makes available to parents in respect of their child care costs are child benefit and the early child care supplement. The latter payment, in recognition of the higher child care costs of pre-school children, is the responsibility of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. It alone amounts to expenditure of approximately €500 million in a full year. These payments are universal and benefit all parents, regardless of income, labour market status or the type of child care chosen. In addition to these universal supports, the Government's child care policy also recognises the need to target additional supports towards disadvantaged families.

Under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2016, co-funded under the European Social Fund, targeted support was provided through the staffing support grant scheme. Community-based and not-for-profit child care providers with a strong focus on disadvantage were awarded grant aid toward staffing costs to allow them to offer reduced fees to disadvantaged parents. Funding under the scheme was originally awarded for a limited period during which services were expected to move towards sustainability. This funding was subsequently continued to the end of 2007, where it was considered necessary to enable services to remain accessible to disadvantaged parents. This continuation of funding was subject to the condition that tiered fee structures were implemented by the services in question.

The National Childcare Investment Programme 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 with 28,000 places in the community/not-for-profit sector. Up to 20% of the overall places will be for children in the three to four years age group and will provide an early childhood care and education focus.

These child care programmes have a combined budget of over €1 billion and are projected to create or support 90,000 child care places. Part of this investment includes the new communitychild care subvention scheme. Funding amounting to €154.2 million will be allocated to the new scheme over the next three years, a significant increase over the €37 million 2007 funding allocation for the support scheme under the equal opportunitieschild care programme. Services have been guaranteed that they will receive at least 90% of their current funding levels in the second half of this year and not less than 85% in 2009.

The community crèches, which account for approximately 20% of the service providers nationally, are central and valuable players in providing quality child care at prices affordable for all, including the most disadvantaged in society. The new scheme will continue to recognise and support the valuable investment in the community/not-for-profit sector and ensure the tiered fees necessary to make this a reality.

The provider of the service referred to by Deputy Deenihan recently contacted the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. It stated the overall parental profile of the children using the service has altered substantially since its original application for inclusion under the scheme. Consequently the subvention which has been allocated to the service for the second half of this year no longer meets the specific needs of the service. The Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has advised the group to submit full details of the current parental profile to allow a full assessment of the group's concerns to be made.