Written answers

Thursday, 23 June 2005

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Child Care Services

8:00 pm

Photo of David StantonDavid Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he has considered or will consider improving the coverage of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme to include low income working families as well as work-poor households as recommended in the Combat Poverty Agency policy on child poverty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21528/05]

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I have noted the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency policy statement on child poverty.

The €499 million Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 already has an equal opportunities and social inclusion perspective and facilitates the further development and expansion of child care facilities to address the needs of parents, particularly those from low-income families, in reconciling their child care needs with their participation in employment, training and education. The programme provides capital grant assistance to create and enhance new and existing child care facilities and staffing grant assistance to community based-not for profit organisations whose child care services have a strong focus on the support of the child care needs of disadvantaged families, wishing to avail of employment, training or education.

Over €440 million has been allocated to child care projects in both the community based sector and to private providers. This funding, when fully drawn down, will lead to the creation of some 39,900 new child care places, benefiting parents seeking and using child care. I am very pleased to note that 24,600 of these new places were in operation by the end of 2004. Of the funding committed to the end of June 2005, over €233 million has been approved towards capital projects, with a further €153 million towards staffing grant assistance.

Staffing grant assistance provides support towards the staffing costs of employing child care workers in community based child care centres in disadvantaged areas. Its contribution towards these costs allows the centre to implement differentiated fee structures to benefit less advantaged parents.

The Deputy may also be interested to note that funding committed to the end of June 2005 includes the provision of over €70 million to child care services operating in RAPID areas, which are specially designated for urban regeneration. In addition, over €33 million has been allocated to projects located in CLÁR areas, which are specially designated for rural regeneration. As a result of this funding many low-income working families and work-poor households benefit from the equal opportunities childcare programme.

I would like to reiterate that this Government remains firmly committed to supporting working parents with their child care needs through increased capacity, choice and service quality. To this end considerable progress has already been achieved in terms of increasing the supply of centre based child care places, as noted above, while affording financial support towards the costs of child rearing through child benefit which has increased very significantly over the past seven years.

Child benefit is the main fiscal instrument through which support is provided to parents with dependent children, and this support is provided to all parents irrespective of income and employment status. In his 2005 Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance announced further increases of €10 per month to €141.60 per month for the first two children and €12 per month to €177.30 per month for third and subsequent children from April 2005. This means that over the period since 1997, the rate of child benefit has almost quadrupled. This level of increase is unprecedented and delivers on the Government's objective of providing support for children generally while offering real choice to parents in relation to the care of their children. One of the main advantages of this approach is that, whereas other supports such as tax relief would be of little or no benefit to those with low incomes, the provision of support for parents through Child Benefit means equality of treatment for all recipients, including high-earners, low-earners and the work poor.

As can be seen, this Government's record in providing enhanced child care supports is without parallel and I am confident that we are moving rapidly to ensure that there are quality services available to parents throughout the country.

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