Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

——and I have frequently participated in debates on the subject.

Child care is an important issue that has been to the forefront of Government policy development since 1997. The equal opportunities child care programme was intended to last from 2000 to 2006. In several debates on the programme in this House last year I think everyone agreed that the time had come to take a long-term view of current child care policies, to adopt a more strategic approach to the delivery of services and to meet the current demands of parents.

As far back as June 2003, the Cabinet committee on children established a high level working group on early childhood care and education that was to consider the options. I was very much involved with the working group as it came under the aegis of the then National Children's Office. The group's terms of reference were "to recommend an integrated national policy on child care and early education which will result in improved co-ordination at national and local level and which incorporates a child-centred approach to service delivery". Therefore, I welcome the emphasis that Senator Terry placed on the importance of a child-centred approach and of incorporating quality measures into the system. I can assure her that a key feature of the child care strategy that the Minister for Finance announced in the budget will be the introduction of early education and quality into child care provision.

The working group included representatives from the various relevant Departments. In October 2005, the Cabinet committee on children received from the group an options paper that has informed the Government's recent decisions on child care. Essentially all the key players in the child care sector, in particular parents, called on the Government to make greater funding available for child care and to adopt a more cohesive approach to the delivery of child care services. Those two demands were clearly stated in the public debate on child care that took place prior to the budget.

After considering these matters with great care, in the budget on 7 December the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, announced a national child care strategy for 2006 to 2010. I believe the national child care strategy is a comprehensive and strategic approach by the Government to the emerging needs and the future development of the child care sector. The strategy will stand the test of time and will serve the successor to this Government well.

It is true that the complexity of the cross-cutting nature of child care policy is sometimes understated. Given the well known difficulties surrounding multi-agency programmes, the location of child care under the remit of a particular Minister or a Department, emerged as a pressing need. We all know the need was addressed when, immediately after the budget, the Taoiseach announced a Government decision to create the office of the Minister for children under the Minister of State with special responsibility for children. I am honoured to have this unprecedented opportunity to develop and deliver policies and programmes that will help to ensure the well-being of all our children. My responsibilities include the issues of child protection and welfare, early childhood care and education; and juvenile justice. The housing together of all these issues in one vision of care, protection and provision for children will empower me to make real change and progress on these vital issues. In recent years as Minister of State I worked across the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Education and Science. During this time I was keenly aware of the pressing need for a more co-ordinated and integrated approach to the diverse but fundamentally interlinked child care areas under the remit of these Departments. The office of the Minister for children has been staffed with key officials from these Departments who will bring with them their expertise in each of their areas of child care policy and services.

A key element of the new national child care strategy is the child care investment programme, which will run from 2006 to 2010 and be delivered in a strategic way through the new office of the Minister for children. As the new programme came into effect on 1 January 2006, the Government in effect decided to terminate the equal opportunities child care programme before its due date and to replace it with another programme. Unlike its predecessor, the new investment programme is entirely funded from the Exchequer and there is no question of it being co-funded by the European Union. The Government has committed €575 million to the programme over its five-year term. That is substantially in excess of — in fact, it is almost double — the allocation for the previous programme. The Government's decision to create a major new five-year investment programme immediately rather than wait until the expiry of the equal opportunities child care programme is evidence of the Government's commitment to the provision of quality child care. Personally, I was anxious to dispense with the EOCP acronym — I think Senators will agree we have an abundance of acronyms to describe different public programmes — so the new programme is simply called the national child care programme. Its name just describes what it is, but it will no doubt become known as the NCP in due course.

In any event, the national child care programme aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality child care supports and services grounded in an understanding of local needs. It will build on the previous programme and will incorporate a number of objectives. A key objective is the creation of 50,000 additional child care places, including 5,000 after-school places and 10,000 pre-school places for three and four year olds. The programme also aims to improve the quality of early childhood care and education services, including part-time, full day care, school-age child care and child minding. It will support families, break the cycle of disadvantage and support a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care centred on the needs of the child. In that connection, I have already mentioned Senator Terry's speech, but I ask her to note that the early education side of the Department of Education and Science has been co-located in the office of the Minister for children and put under my devolved direction. That is an important point because whatever child minding arrangements are in place must be informed by the best early education practice.

The Government has set ambitious targets for the next five years, including the creation of 17,000 additional trained child care personnel. I am committed to ensuring that we meet these targets and objectives in a way that takes account of the needs for pre-school child care, school age child care and for wrap-around services that meet the specific needs of parents and their children. Meeting the targets will require careful planning and incremental development but I am confident I have been given the necessary tools and resources to deliver on them. As Senators will appreciate, the fact that the previous programme was co-funded by the European Union and related to female labour market participation and equality in the workforce meant there were constraints on the types of programme that could be devised under the previous equal opportunities child care programme. Those constraints will not apply to the new programme, which will be funded exclusively by the Exchequer.

Additional capital funding was announced in budget 2006 that will enable me to allocate capital grant assistance to groups that address significant child care service gaps. The maximum capital grants available for the building or expansion of child care facilities will be €1 million per facility for community-based, not-for-profit providers. There will be a strong focus on private provider applications as well with a maximum capital grant of €100,000 per facility and a maximum of €500,000 per provider in the case of multiple services in different catchment areas.

The new national child care investment programme will continue to assist with staffing and other operating costs in community facilities that cannot meet the full costs from fee income alone. In fact, I received many representations about the uncertainty of personnel in the community facilities who were in receipt of staffing grants. Staffing grant assistance under the previous programme is being continued to the end of 2007 to ensure there will be no break in the momentum that has been built up and that the transition to the new programme is a smooth one.

A key element of the new programme is the decision to deliver it at local level through the city and county child care committees. I have had the privilege of visiting many of the city and county child care committees and I put on record my appreciation of the tremendous work they do. They were established at city and county level under the previous investment programme and have been a very active force at local level. They will identify and meet local child care needs and facilitate greater flexibility in our responsiveness to those needs.

Even with these new structures in place, it will not always be possible to deal with child care as a discrete administrative area. One example I put to Senators is the need for interaction between infrastructural development and the planning structures and regulations under the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In regard to planning issues, I propose to strengthen linkages at national and local levels between the relevant parties, including the planning authorities, the county development boards and the county child care committees. In co-operation with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, officials from my office will address local planning authorities shortly to ensure greater understanding of the issues and to foster a co-ordinated approach.

For understandable reasons, Senators tend to be very familiar with the operations of local government authorities and I am sure they are aware of the difficulties at local level in regard to the planning of child care facilities. It is important we have a much more co-ordinated approach to this issue and that clear goals are set and clear norms are laid down by officials and authorities.