Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he is carrying out an assessment of child care needs; his estimate of the number of children already taking up child care options; the extent to which they are in the informal and the formal economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26687/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, EOCP, 2000-2006, which is implemented by my Department, has been an important landmark development in Irish child care policy. As this very successful investment programme draws to 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.

In addition to consideration at cross-departmental level, 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. The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Services is expected to be published shortly by the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Care, CECDE, as is the Early Years Curriculum by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, NCCA. A report due to issue from the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, is also expected to make some recommendations regarding child care.

Policy on child care provision in Ireland would appear to be at an important watershed and I believe it is crucial that a long-term outlook is adopted on what is a critical issue for parents and children as well as being an important strategic issue for Ireland. My Department has been at the forefront of these developments through the EOCP and I hope to continue this role and its valuable contribution to future Government policy in this area.

Before turning to the EOCP and its role in policy formation, both at its inception and into the future, I wish to outline some of the difficulties which currently limit a complete statistical analysis of child care needs. In 2004, the National Children's Research Centre carried out a detailed analysis of all official data sources on children and childhood in Ireland. It concluded in its report Counting our Children that while, by international standards, Ireland scored well in the collection of a wide array of data on children, there were still significant data gaps, particularly in data in respect of pre-school and primary school age children.

The principal data sources available at present on child care arrangements in Ireland include: the ESRI 1997 survey of child care arrangements, the 1999-2000 national child care census report carried out by Area Development Management, ADM, Ltd. and the CSO special module on child care published in the fourth quarterly national household survey in 2002. These studies do not present a complete picture of child care usage as they did not distinguish between the type of facilities attended and tended to be very narrowly focused.

A more detailed module on child care is expected to be undertaken by the CSO in early 2007. In the interim, while it is not possible to undertake a thorough statistical assessment of child care needs, experience gained from the operation of the EOCP provides a good basis for future planning. In addition, structures developed under the EOCP, such as the establishment of 33 city and county child care committees, provide valuable information at a local and national level.

Since 1990, women's labour force participation rates have risen by two thirds. In particular, it is the case that for women with children, the participation rate, and the likelihood of being in full-time employment, is higher the younger the child. The ESRI study found that, in 1997, the most widely used forms of child care were centre based. These included sessional services, full day services, crèches, nurseries and pre-schools. The bulk of these services were confined to morning sessions. The study also found that 16% of children in households where mothers did not work in paid employment availed of paid child care. This compared with 58% of children in households where mothers worked full time in paid employment.

Childminding in the minder's home was the second most commonly used form of child care and the most commonly used child care arrangement for women in paid employment. Childminders were found to be used by 14% of mothers whose youngest child was under four years and by 3% of mothers whose youngest child was five to nine years. The CSO special module in 2002 found that some 75% of families availing of child care used the services of either paid or unpaid relatives or those of a childminder rather than a centre based service. About 11% of parents of pre-school children used a crèche or other centre based facility. Many parents used a number of care arrangements for their children.

A further source of data is provided through the child care notification system operated by the Health Service Executive under the provisions of the Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations 1996. By the end of 2004, approximately 80,000 child care places had been notified. The types of services normally obliged to notify to the HSE include pre-schools, playgroups, day nurseries, crèches, childminders caring for more than three pre-school children and other similar services catering for pre-school children.

Prior to the EOCP, Ireland relied largely on the private sector to provide early childhood care and education. With the identification of child care as an investment priority under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, this Government embarked on the EOCP as an ambitious investment programme for child care. Funding for the programme now stands at €499 million, €181.8 million of which is provided by EU structural funding.

The statistics generated by the EOCP provide useful indicators for the future planning of child care service provision. To the end of August 2005, 3,400 grants have been approved, of which 1,500 are capital grants and 1,900 are current funding grants. A total of 816 of the capital grants were made to private sector providers. By the end of June 2005, 26,000 new child care places had been created while 23,000 existing places were being supported. It is now projected that 38,500 new places will have been created by the end of the programme. The staffing costs of some 2,300 child care workers are supported under the EOCP in areas of disadvantage. Childminders have also been targeted under the programme's quality enhancement measures and almost 1,000 have used the voluntary notification system put in place.

I believe the work of the EOCP provides a sound foundation on which to move forward to a new programme of investment based on sound strategic planning. At the same time, I recognise the need for further data collection and propose to take the necessary steps to ensure that this proceeds, through the CSO and other available resources, at the earliest possible date.

With regard to the Deputy's question regarding the extent to which child care is provided through the informal and formal economies, roughly 80,000 places are provided by the formal sector who have notified to the HSE under the child care regulations. It is not possible to measure the amount of child care provided in the informal sector since childminders minding less than three children are not obliged to notify the HSE and, therefore, there is no data base on this sector apart from the 1,000 or so who have availed of the voluntary notification system put in place by the Department of Health and Children.