Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views, in view of the ongoing difficulties for many not-for-profit community child care facilities, many of which are faced with job losses, financial difficulty and closure, on amending the newly implemented funding arrangements. [20494/08]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006 — 2010 (NCIP) under which the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCSS) is being implemented.

The main supports the Government makes available to parents to assist them with their child care costs are Child Benefit and the Early Childcare 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.

The Community Childcare Subvention Scheme was introduced on 1st January 2008 with an allocation of €154.2 million over 3 years. The Scheme will continue to support community-based child care services to provide reduced child care fees for disadvantaged parents, complementing the universal supports in place for all parents. Community child care services will qualify for grant aid on the basis of the level of service they provide and the profile of the parents benefiting from their service. The parent profile of each service, and the amount of subvention it will receive, are determined on the basis of completed parent declaration forms which they return as part of the application process. The subvention received by services is, in turn, reflected in reduced fees for parents who qualify as disadvantaged under the scheme.

The new 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. The subvention to services is responsive to the level of service provided as well as the degree of parental disadvantage and the ceiling for funding which existed under the previous scheme has been removed. Account is also being taken of all of the operational costs of the service rather than staffing costs alone. Services, including full-time, part-time and sessional ones which, in some cases, were previously inaccessibly priced for disadvantaged parents, will be available to them at more appropriate rates under the new scheme.

In addition, transitional arrangements have been put in place to facilitate community services which were funded under the previous scheme to adjust to the new arrangements, including making any adjustments necessary to their fee structures. This will mean that community services which were funded under the previous scheme and which continue to operate, are guaranteed at least 95% of their 2007 grant aid in 2008.

When the framework for the new scheme was announced in July of last year, my predecessor, Mr Brendan Smith T.D. signalled his intention to undertake a review of the Scheme on the basis of the more detailed and comprehensive data which was to be forwarded to the Office of the Minister for Children in late 2007 as part of the application process of the new scheme. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the review was completed and the following adjustments were made to the scheme in December:

the child care subvention rates, which form the basis for assessing the level of grant funding payable to community child care services, have been 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 grant level of €20,000 per annum has been introduced, provided services meet the conditions of the scheme in full.

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 Childcare Subvention Scheme, the Government is continuing to offer very generous support to this important sector of Ireland's child care infrastructure. Given the cost of the previous staffing Scheme was €37 million in 2007, this represents a very significant increase in resources to support the Community Childcare sector.