Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 296: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will reinstate the crèche supplement as it provides vital childcare support to children and families in disadvantaged communities in the absence of the required funding supports. [30208/04]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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It is estimated that there are over 3,000 crèches and pre-schools in the country, the majority of which are privately operated. The remainder are community-based and operate on a not for profit basis. Some are grant-aided by health boards while others receive funding through the equal opportunities child care programme of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In addition, the Early Start pre-school programme, operated by the Department of Education and Science, targets children in the three to four age bracket in areas of disadvantage.

The child care facilities which are grant-aided by health boards generally cater for children who are referred by a public health nurse or other health professional where the child's needs, or those of the parent, are of a medical or personal social services nature. The objective of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is to meet immediate, short-term income maintenance needs. The practice of paying crèche supplements, as they came to be known, through the scheme evolved in certain health board areas with the original intention of providing short-term support to parents to enable them to avail of services such as counselling or addiction treatment programmes, or to facilitate children with special needs to benefit from interaction with other children.

In many cases however, supplements remained in payment for long durations and in circumstances which were outside the scope of the scheme. In effect, the supplements had become a long-term child care support rather than a short-term social welfare intervention. This was the reason that steps were taken this year to curtail these payments. The other specific crèche and playschool support programmes remain in place. I consider that child care and child welfare supports are best provided by consolidating and improving these programmes. I am in discussions with my colleagues in that regard.