Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 135: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the arrangements being put in place for the payment of the new child care payment announced in budget 2006; the criteria for payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10236/06]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Office of the Minister for Children, OMC, has been given responsibility for the early child care supplement which is being introduced with effect from 1 April 2006. The payment, which is non-taxable, will amount to €1,000 per annum and will be made to parents of all eligible children aged less than six years, in quarterly instalments of €250. The supplement will be paid where a child is eligible for any part of a quarter.

The OMC is putting arrangements in place with the Department of Social and Family Affairs to administer the supplement on its behalf on an agency basis. These arrangements will provide for the supplement to be made to parents in the same way as they receive their child benefit payments. The OMC expects the first payment, which would be due in July 2006, to be made in August with the subsequent quarterly payments this year expected to be made in October and December.

The criteria governing eligibility for child benefit will be applied to the early child care supplement. As a result, parents in receipt of child benefit and with children aged under six years will automatically receive the supplement. Over 350,000 children under the age of six are expected to benefit from the Supplement at an estimated cost in 2006 of €265 million rising to over €350 million in a full year.

The OMC will be in contact with parents of eligible children shortly with details of the supplement and how it will be paid to them in the coming months.