Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 369: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the grant aid available from her Department in respect of a group (details supplied) in County Cork who need funding. [16460/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In assessing applications for funding, consideration is given to Department supported interventions already in place in the areas concerned so as to avoid duplication of effort and resource. My Department currently supports the educational element of eight Teenage Parenting Support Projects under the Health Services Executive's Teenage Parenting Support Initiative in Galway, Limerick, Louth, Coolock, Donegal, Carlow, Cork and Dublin. These projects continue to be its priority.

Funding has been committed in 2008 to the 8 Teenage Parenting Support projects as a specific gender element of the School Completion Programme under DEIS in preventing early school leaving among teenage mothers. Links have been established between local School Completion projects in these areas, assisted by the SCP National Coordination Team and the Teenage Parenting Support Initiative Coordinators. The aim of these projects is to enable young women who are pregnant and young mothers to stay in second level education and to progress on to third level education or training. The Project does this by providing individual support, information and grinds where necessary. Young people participating in Teen Parenting Support Programmes are targeted in-school, out-of-school and in higher /further education, giving them the opportunity to reach their full potential through continued participation in education and training. This will improve their life opportunities and reduce the likelihood of the young family experiencing poverty and social exclusion and being long-term dependants on state support.

Single parents are target-groups of two Further Education programmes, the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) and the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS). Grants towards the cost of childcare are given to VECs to be used to assist with the provision of childcare support for learners in the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme, Youthreach, Senior Traveller Training Centres and in the Back to Education Initiative. The aim of this support is to attract people whose attendance is currently prevented by childcare responsibilities to enrol on these programmes. Parents and guardians generally may avail themselves of these grants.

Greater affordability of childcare, linked to the creation of additional childcare places, has been a key principle in both the previous and current National Development Plans. This Government has provided unprecedented levels of funding for childcare in recent years. €499.3 million was allocated to the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) 2000-2006 and some 41,000 places will have been created by the time the programme finishes. Under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, the group referred to by the Deputy received capital funding of €147,306.00. It also received staffing grants of €31,200 in 2007 under the National Childcare Investment Programme's interim staffing arrangements.

Going forward, childcare provision will continue to attract substantial investment under the new National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010. €575m has been allocated to the new programme, which will be administered by the Office of the Minister for Children and aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality childcare services by supporting the creation of an additional 50,000 places. This Government also introduced the Early Childhood Supplement of €1000 per child under six to help parents with childcare costs.

The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents," put forward proposals for the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents; the extension of the National Employment Action Plan to focus on lone parents; focused provision of childcare; improved information services for lone parents and the introduction of a new social assistance payment for low income families with young children.

A working group, comprised of officials from across a range of Government Departments, on which my Department is represented, is currently working on an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations. Work on the development of this implementation plan is progressing. Issues including access to childcare support, education, training and activation measures continue to be discussed with the relevant Departments and Agencies.