David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 75: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of children awaiting assessment for the crèche supplement by a social worker or health sector personal social services professional in each county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6057/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Crèche supplements were introduced in some of the former health boards to provide individual assistance where necessary to parents in need of short-term support. This arose, for example, where a parent would not be able to avail of necessary supports such as counselling services or addiction treatment programmes without assistance towards the cost of child-minding. The fact that these supplements were in payment for long durations in many cases indicated that they had become a long-term child care support rather than the short-term social welfare intervention which was originally intended. In effect, long-term child care needs were being provided through a short-term income support scheme.

It is more appropriate that community operated or "not-for-profit" child care facilities in disadvantaged areas would be supported in a more direct and sustainable manner than indirectly through the short-term supplementary welfare allowance scheme. This approach has been successfully adopted in certain Health Service Executive regions where former health boards provided significant grant-aid directly to community child care crèche facilities.

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has a significant financial support mechanism in place through its equal opportunities childcare programme, particularly aimed at supporting parents who want to take up educational, training or employment opportunities. The Department of Education and Science also operates an early start pre-school programme aimed at children in the three to four age range.

The facilities supported directly through these mechanisms are able to provide child care facilities at low or no cost to disadvantaged families who do not then have to rely on supplementary welfare allowance on an ongoing basis.

Officials from my Department engaged in discussions during 2004 with the Departments of Health and Children, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Education and Science, the then Eastern Regional Health Authority and other health boards to identify and put in place suitable funding arrangements for crèches for 2004 and subsequent years. Some local funding difficulties in relation to 2004 were resolved in light of these discussions.

In this regard, I have allocated an additional €2.3 million within the social welfare Estimates for 2005 for crèche supports. These funds can be drawn on, as appropriate, to supplement provisions of the relevant Departments which have an existing funding relationship with crèches. The funds are particularly appropriate to agencies supplying services which might otherwise have relied on supplementary welfare allowance crèche supplements for a part of their funding in previous years. Discussions are ongoing with relevant Departments to finalise arrangements for allocating this additional funding for the support of community crèches in the most appropriate way.

As an interim measure, I have also arranged that existing crèche supplements already in payment may continue to be paid by community welfare services in 2005 to the families concerned while they continue to remain eligible.

In addition, new supplements may be made available in specific instances where a public health nurse or health service social worker recommends that a child in difficult circumstances would benefit by attending a community crèche, or that the parent/s of a child needs to avail of counselling services, addiction treatments or similar and that crèche services are required to facilitate this.

In each such instance the Health Service Executive must be satisfied that all the relevant circumstances are taken into account, for example, the person's ability to pay for or provide the service from an alternative source, in determining if a supplement is warranted in each recommended case.

I am satisfied that the community welfare service is in a position to deal with any referrals from public health nurses or social workers as the cases arise.

My Department has no direct responsibility for the health service professionals who refer people to the community welfare officers for consideration of a crèche supplement under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Accordingly, I do not have information on how many families or children are awaiting a professional assessment by public health nurses or health service social workers.

However, my Department's computer system show that there are currently 273 crèche supplements in payment. Thirty-five of these were awarded by community welfare officers in the past few weeks following the issue of the guidelines by my Department to the Health Service Executive at the end of January last setting out the new provisions. According to computer records only five crèche supplement applicants are awaiting a decision at present.