Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)
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Question 516: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason a school (details supplied) in County Dublin has been refused the renewal of their grant under the equal opportunities child care fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34296/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The equal opportunities child care programme, EOCP, 2000-06, 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. With regard to the community based group referred to by the Deputy, its application for continued staffing funding was recently refused as the group had failed to express a willingness to extend the operating hours of its service beyond 40 weeks per year. Therefore, it did not meet the objectives of the EOCP.

An appeal against the decision on staffing funding has been submitted to my Department and is being assessed by Area Development Management Limited, which has been appointed by my Department to operate the day-to-day implementation of the programme. On completion of the assessment process, the appeal will be considered by the programme appraisal committee chaired by my Department before a final decision is made regarding funding. The group will be informed of the outcome of the assessment in due course.