Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Crèche supplements were introduced in some of the former health boards some years ago to provide individual assistance through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to parents wishing to use crèches. 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 extended periods 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 areas where former health boards provided significant grant aid directly to community child care-crèche facilities.

More generally, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has a significant financial support mechanism in place through its equal opportunities child care 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 year 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. Notwithstanding this, new crèche supplements may be made available by the executive 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 or parents 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 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 case recommended by the professional worker involved. My Department has no responsibility for the health service professionals who refer people to 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 shows that there are currently 538 crèche supplements in payment. Some 306 of these were awarded by community welfare officers 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 16 crèche supplement applicants are awaiting a decision at present.

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.