Phil Prendergast (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. There is no doubt that the Government's planned changes to the subsidies paid to certain child care facilities will cause immense problems for working parents. Single parents will be pushed out of the workforce and working couples on lower incomes will struggle to meet the full commercial charges of child care facilities. Anyone working part-time or in receipt of family income supplement will be disadvantaged. As a result, parents will effectively be forced to withdraw their children from these facilities altogether.

The equal opportunities child care programme 2000-2006 was created to develop child care to meet the needs of parents in employment, education and training and to help them to return to work or access resources which would have been previously impossible to avail of without affordable child care. With this new initiative, many of those originally targeted will be precluded from re-entering the workforce simply because they cannot afford to pay the rates charged in their local child care facilities. From next year, most parents will receive no financial assistance and subvention payments will be restricted to those on social welfare payments of €80 per week and family income supplement payments of €30 per week.

A tiered system whereby parents on higher incomes would pay an appropriate rate is essential and I see no difficulty with this. Many child care providers — such as those at Abbeylara, Kilbeggan or Clonmel — already operate such a system. However, low income working families will be priced out of these facilities if this decision is proceeded with. The current course of action was not recommended in the review that took place and, when the manner in which they receive financial support is changed, it could potentially herald the end for many community-based child care facilities.

The existing equal opportunities child care programme is excellent. Affordable, high-quality child care is delivered with the involvement of the Health Service Executive, and public health nurses and environmental health officers visit to assess and ensure the ongoing quality of the service. A staff support grant is paid to child care facilities which helps them meet the cost of the children's care. This has clearly been an essential support for those on low incomes. It was especially relevant to single parents entering the workforce and has ensured the provision of affordable, quality child care for 62,000 children through 33 city and county child care providers.

If this change is implemented, it has the potential to ruin many village communities that have developed throughout the country in recent years and I can only see a negative fallout from this revised approach. Feedback from urban and rural facilities demonstrates one common opinion from management and staff alike, namely, they feel certain they will be forced to close as the numbers availing of the service inevitably fall. Many of these committed people have invested valuable time and effort in obtaining certification in child care and are delivering an excellent standard of care to our children.

Providers of not-for-profit child care had already implemented a tiered structure to facilitate different needs. The structure the Minister of State proposes will be a disincentive to many parents and can only contribute to a culture where people will avoid employment in the event that they might lose their subventions.

This decision must be reviewed and the Government must ensure the current staff support grant is maintained and developed ultimately to provide an equitable system of access to community child care programmes. Additional support for child care to those in receipt of social welfare payments can be provided through the increased financial provision set out for the next three years in the child care budget. If the Minister of State does not revise this decision, facilities throughout the country will be forced to close because there will not be enough working parents in a position to afford the full costs facing them.