Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 254: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on a case (details supplied). [8882/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Child Care Investment Programme 2006-2010 (NCIP) which, together with the earlier Equal Opportunities Child care Programme 2000-2006 (EOCP), are implemented by the Office of the Minister for Children.

The main supports the Government makes available to parents to assist them with their child care costs are Child Benefit and the Early Child care Supplement. The latter payment is the responsibility of my Office, and it alone is expected to amount to expenditure of over €500m in 2008. These payments are universal and benefit all parents, regardless of their income, labour market status or the type of child care they choose. In addition to these universal supports, Government child care policy has also recognised the need to target additional supports towards disadvantaged families including supports under the Community Child care Subvention Scheme 2008-2010 which has been introduced under the NCIP. As far as I am aware, the Department of Education and Science does not at present have any proposal to administer pre-school services or fund pre-school teachers as part of the general education system.

The Community Child Care Subvention Scheme (CCSS) was introduced in January 2008 and has an allocation of €154.2 million over the next 3 years. The Scheme provides an effective framework for the continued targeting of additional resources towards disadvantaged parents and their children while continuing to support community child care services generally and complementing the universal supports in place for all parents. Under the scheme, the level of grant aid which individual services qualify for will reflect the level of service they provide and the profile of the parents benefiting from their service. Services are required to ask parents using their services to complete a simple declaration form which is to be included in a return to my Office and on which basis the level of subvention for each service will be determined. The subvention received by services is, in turn, reflected in the reduced fees for parents who qualify as disadvantaged under the scheme.

When I announced the framework for the Community Child Care Subvention Scheme in July of last year, I signalled my intention to undertake a review of the Scheme on the basis of the more detailed and comprehensive data which was to be forwarded to my Office in October 2007 as part of the application process. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the review was completed last December and the following adjustments to the scheme were approved by the Government: the child care subvention rates, which form the basis for assessing the level of grant funding payable to community child care services, were increased from €80 to €100 per week in the case of Band A parents and from €30 to €70 per week in the case of Band B parents; services will also be grant aided to enable them to provide reduced child care fees for parents in Band C who are marginally above the Family Income Supplement (FIS) threshold and low income parents who qualify under this measure will benefit by €45 per week per full-time place; where a parent moves to a lower Band (e.g. from social welfare into employment), the subvention paid in respect of them will be withdrawn on a tapered basis with the effect that where a parent would no longer qualify for a Band A payment, he or she will be treated as a Band B parent in the following year; special provisions will be provided for in the case of child care services where, for valid reasons, it is not possible to assess grant funding on the basis of annual parental declarations alone (e.g. women's refuges, special services for children of drug misusers) and, in exceptional cases, where special levels of funding provision may be required; in recognition of the on-going input of the community and voluntary sector, and to provide stability for services which would otherwise receive very low levels of grant subvention (e.g. small rural services) a minimum annual grant level of €20,000 was introduced; as a transitional measure during 2008-2010, services which could otherwise face a significant decrease in their existing level of grant support from July 2008, will continue to receive grant aid equal to not less than 90% of their previous grant level during July-December 2008, equal to not less than 85% of that amount in 2009, and equal to not less than 75% of that amount in 2010. The transitional grant funding is conditional on all requirements of the Scheme being complied with, including the return of annual applications together with completed parent declaration forms and the implementation of tiered fees based on the subvention levels for Band A, B and C parents.

The changes which have been introduced will ensure that the most affordable child care is available to families according to their means. Put simply, the tiered fee structure is the most effective way of ensuring that the considerable and ongoing Government support for the community child care sector, will be targeted at those who need it most. I am sure that the Deputy will agree that, with an allocation of €154.2 million over a 3 year period for the Community Child care Subvention Scheme, the Government is continuing to offer very generous support to this important sector of Ireland's child care infrastructure.