Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will report on progress over the past 12 months in expansion of the equal opportunities child care programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29647/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The current seven year Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, EOCP, 2000-2006 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 in reconciling their child care needs with their participation in employment, education and training. The EOCP aims to increase the supply of centre based child care places by 55%, some 31,372 places, by programme end. It also aims to provide support and assistance to the many childminders who are providing a child care service across the country. In addition, the programme encompasses many quality issues which were identified in the child care strategy and aims to ensure that there is co-ordination in the delivery of child care services nationwide.

The total funding committed under the EOCP over the past 12 months amounts to almost €181 million, of which almost €169 million has been allocated to child care facilities and over €12 million to quality improvement measures. It is projected that this funding will create some 8,450 new child care places and will support some 2,960 existing places. Total funding committed under the EOCP from the start of the programme to the end of September 2005 amounts to over €450.5 million, of which over €395 million has been allocated to child care facilities and over €55 million to quality improvement measures.

It is projected that this funding will create some 39,000 new child care places and will support over 31,500 existing places. By the end of June 2005, some 26,000 of these new child care places were already in place. A significant part of the remaining funding will be required for continuing support to existing projects and for the provision of capital grant assistance for the development of child care facilities in areas where there are gaps in service provision.

The level of demand for capital grant assistance was such that my Department considered it important to increase the capital provision for the present programme. Following discussions with the Minister for Finance, an additional capital provision of €90 million was made available over the period 2005-2009 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. This brings the total funding available for the programme to €499.3 million and now includes an increased provision for capital developments, for which €205 million has been set aside. Since budget day last year, I have announced a record allocation totalling almost €119 million in capital funding to community based not for profit groups and private child care providers.

The availability of the additional capital funding will enable the programme to make further capital grant assistance available to groups which address significant child care service gaps and where the project proposal represents good value for money when considered against the current guidelines on building costs. I hope to announce further significant capital commitments before the end of 2005 and thereafter.

Staffing funding under the EOCP is also made available to help support the staffing costs of those community-based not for profit projects which can demonstrate that they are providing child care in areas of significant disadvantage and that they are supporting disadvantaged parents to access employment, education or training. Over 830 community based, not for profit groups receive ongoing staffing grant assistance, with over €30 million of EU and Exchequer funding going to this measure each year. It was originally envisaged that some groups would receive such funding for a period of three years, as they move towards sustainability which would normally be achievable when the service is operating at full capacity and with an appropriate fee structure.

My Department has recently approved continuation of the existing levels of staffing grant assistance until 31 December 2007 for all groups whose first three year funding had elapsed. These groups have been informed of this decision and that this funding is subject to maintaining their forecast levels of service and implementing any conditions associated with the development of the service with regard to previous grant approvals.

I am satisfied with the performance of the 33 city and county child care committees, CCCs, during the last year. These 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 local area. To implement its strategy plan, each CCC prepares an annual action plan, which is funded under the quality measure of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, EOCP, 2000-2006. This year, over €7.6 million was allocated to the 33 CCCs for the implementation of their 2005 action plans.

Annual funding was also approved to the 33 CCCs for the implementation of the national childminding initiative, specifically targeted at childminders, who play a key role in the delivery of child care. A sum of €965,000 was allocated to this initiative in 2005, which supports training, networking, information needs and a quality awareness programme of lectures. The quality awareness lecture programme, and other training courses provided by the CCCs between January 2004 and June 2005, were attended by 3,362 childminders.

Funding is also available under this initiative to childminders 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 childminders grants element of the EOCP to assess the future needs in this area.

I am also pleased to report that the working group on school age child care, which was established in 2004 by the national child care co-ordinating committee, published School Age Childcare in Ireland. In this report, which I launched in June this year, a number of recommendations to promote the development of school age child care, including the use of existing school facilities where this is both possible and appropriate, were made. In September, my Department launched a new initiative with the city and county child care committees, to implement these recommendations at local level. The committees are due to report back to me by the end of 2005 on progress to date and, from these reports, detailed actions plans for 2006 will be drawn up and implemented. The Department of Education and Science is supporting this initiative, both at national and local level through its regional education officers.