Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress that has been made on a follow-up programme to the equal opportunities child care programme; if the new programme will include capital as well as staff costs in order to deliver subsidised child care places; and when the replacement programme will be announced. [29659/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP, 2000-2006, which is implemented by my Department, has been a landmark development in Irish child care policy. As this very successful investment programme nears its final stage, the full range of child care issues and how we should best address them are being critically examined in a number of fora at this time.

At official level, the issue of a follow-up programme to the EOCP is currently being examined in the context of the broad-ranging consideration of child care issues being undertaken by representatives of a number of Departments taking part in the high level working group on early childhood care and education under the co-ordination of the National Children's Office. In addition, a number of respected bodies have issued or are about to issue informative reports. These include the recent reports of the National Women's Council of Ireland, NWCI, and the National Economic and Social Forum, NESF. Other reports expected to be published shortly include the national quality framework for early childhood services by the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education, CECDE, and the early years curriculum by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, NCCA. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, is also expected to comment on child care when it issues its expected report. These reports and their recommendations will inform the present consideration of the wide range of cross-cutting issues that affect child care.

While it is not possible at this stage to comment on the nature of any follow-on programme to the EOCP, the Government is already committed to continued expenditure beyond the end of the programme to ensure that its momentum is maintained. I believe this indicates a strong commitment to the adoption of a future programme to further develop our child care infrastructure. EOCP funding commitments have been made beyond 2006 in respect of both capital and staffing grant assistance. The level of demand for capital grant assistance was such that I considered it important to increase the capital provision for the present programme. An additional capital provision of €90 million was made available over the period 2005-09 in the context of the 2005 budget. Of this amount, €50 million is being made available under the present programme and the remaining €40 million will flow under the next phase of the post-2006 EOCP.

Regarding staffing grant assistance and following a detailed review of the existing staffing grants under the EOCP, my Department recently extended the terms of the grants to the end of December 2007 to groups that have received staffing grants for a period of three or more years and which continue to deliver a child care service in accordance with their pre-agreed targets. My Department has been at the forefront of developing quality child care services through the EOCP and I hope to continue this role and its valuable contribution to future Government policy on child care. Pending a decision by Government in this regard, I am not in a position to comment further on the issues raised by the Deputy.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 281: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons who have availed of the grant for a child minder in the home in each of the past five years. [29660/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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A total of 33 city-county child care committees, CCCs, were established in 2001 to prepare and deliver a five year child care development strategy plan to address the specific child care needs of each of the 33 local areas. To implement its strategy plan, each CCC prepares an annual action plan, which is funded under the quality measure of the equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP, 2000 — 2006. I allocated over €7.6 million to the 33 CCCs for the implementation of their 2005 action plans.

I also approved annual funding to the 33 CCCs for the implementation of the national child minding initiative, specifically targeted at child minders, who play a key role in the delivery of child care. I allocated €965,000 to this initiative in 2005 which supports training, networking, information needs and a quality awareness programme of lectures. Funding is also available under this initiative to child minders to enhance their service through small developmental capital grants of up to 90% of the total cost with a maximum of €630. I made available a funding allocation of €1.89 million for this purpose in 2004. However, as the numbers seeking the grants were less than anticipated, this allocation was carried over to 2005. My Department is currently reviewing the child minders grants element of the EOCP to assess the future needs in this area.

The national child minding initiative commenced in 2003 and, consequently, figures relating to persons participating are only available from the beginning of 2004. Between January 2004 and June 2005, 547 child minders availed of the child minder development grants and 3,362 child minders attended the quality awareness lecture programme and other training courses provided by the CCCs.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 282: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the names of the community based child care services receiving staffing grants under the equal opportunities child care programme; the number of children in receipt of child care services funded by the equal opportunities child care programme; the names of groups which have had their funding cut; and the reasons therefor. [29661/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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To the end of September 2005, 832 applications from community based and not for profit projects received staffing grant assistance, totalling over €162 million under the equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP, 2000-06. This is in addition to capital funding of €233.5 million allocated under the programme to the end of September 2005.

Total funding allocated under the programme to the end of September 2005 is expected to lead to the creation of approximately 39,000 new child care places and to support a further 31,500 existing child care places. By the end of June 2005, approximately 26,000 of these new places were already in place. Staffing grant assistance under the EOCP is normally approved for three years in the first instance. Subsequent approval of continuation funding normally follows a review of the extent to which a service is meeting the targets agreed in its contract with Area Development Management, ADM, Limited, which is engaged by my Department to manage the day to day administration of the grants.

To benefit from funding, groups must continue to pay particular attention to supporting disadvantaged families and to the implementation of a fee structure tailored to the differing economic circumstances of their client group, thereby ensuring that child care places subsidised by the EOCP are targeted towards those most in need. Following a detailed review of the existing staffing grants under the EOCP, my Department recently extended the terms of the grants to the end of December 2007 to groups which received staffing grants for a period of three or more years and which continue to deliver a child care service in accordance with their pre-agreed targets.

Where a service is significantly failing to meet the terms of its contract, the level of funding under the EOCP may be revised downwards. The converse is also true and a service significantly exceeding the targets in its contract may have its funding revised upwards. Should the Deputy have a query with regard to the level of funding approved for a specific child care service, my Department will be happy to supply him with the relevant details.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 283: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will give a detailed breakdown of child care spending under the National Development Plan 2000-06; if he will explain the grounds on which the decision to increase the target supply of centre based child care places was based; and if it was due to the increased number of women in the active workforce or labour market needs for more women. [29662/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As the Deputy may be aware the equal opportunities child care programme is funded as part of the two regional operational programmes under the NDP and receives co-funding under the European Union Structural Funds. The table sets out the progress to date of the EOCP as reported by grant beneficiaries to ADM Limited.

The interim evaluation of the EOCP and the mid-term evaluation commented positively on the performance of the child care measures, resulting in the allocation of additional funds to the child care measures. This increased the EU contribution to the child care measures from €170 million to €181 million. The reviews also highlighted the fact that the EOCP was performing well and that it was likely to meet the targets set in 1999 and 2000 well within the lifetime of the NDP.

On this basis my Department proposed revised targets for expenditure under the NDP to the managing authorities of the regional operational programmes. These amendments were agreed with the managing authorities and later approved by the respective monitoring committees of the regional operational programmes. The increase in the targets of the EOCP were a result of positive programme performance and took into account the additional funding for the measures and, as a result, an increase in the target was warranted.

The number of women in the active workforce continues to increase rapidly and has grown from a figure of 400,400 in 1990, to 819,000 in 2005. This increase is clearly an important contributor to Ireland's growing need for child care service provision, a need which the EOCP was established to address.