Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she has received representations from people working in child care on the adverse effects of the child care subvention scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45579/08]

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), which will invest €575 million over 5 years, with €358 million of this in capital grant aid for childcare services.

I am aware that concerns regarding the new Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCSS) have been expressed by some community childcare services and I have met with representatives of a number of service providers and discussed issues of concern to them. It is considered that 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 childcare services generally. The CCSS was informed by and takes account of a number of enhancements recommended by the report of the Value for Money Review of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme. These include the fact that the subvention to services is more 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, is removed. Account is also 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 were in some cases, inaccessibly priced for disadvantaged parents, are now available to them at more appropriate rates under the new scheme. In addition, transitional funding arrangements have been made to ensure that existing grant recipients are facilitated to adjust to the new scheme, including making any adjustments necessary to their fee structures.

As you may be aware the framework for the CCSS was originally announced in July 2007 and on the basis of information collected from the community childcare services, adjustments were made to the scheme by the Government in December of that year. These adjustments addressed many of the concerns expressed by childcare providers in relation to the CCSS. I am confident that the scheme is a fair and equitable way of supporting community childcare operators in the provision of an affordable and high quality service to parents, based on their means.