Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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63. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason pre-school providers (details supplied) are waiting up to six or seven weeks to receive contract payments from his Department; when this will be addressed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39426/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department implements the 3 Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) programmes - the Childcare Education and Training Programme, the Community Employment Childcare programme and the Afterschool Childcare Programme - which provide childcare supports to eligible parents returning to work or to education.

The process involved in making these payments begins when a parent gets a letter from a relevant Department or agency and contacts their local City or County Childcare Committee to access a place in a childcare service. The information relating to these childcare places is then forwarded to the Department for inclusion in the next payment run. The actual payments are processed by Pobal, following receipt of the payment details from my Department. This process of itself involves a delay between the time a child actually takes up a TEC place in an individual childcare service and the processing of a payment.

The result is that when payments are made they will normally involve some element of a back payment and an advance payment. The length of the back payment can vary, but the longest period of back payment normally occurs at this time of year, as the volume of approvals for new children on the programmes is at a peak. This is primarily due to parents starting education or training programmes in September, whose childcare needs are being catered for under the CETS programme.

The Department is acutely aware that the payment process can cause cash-flow problems for services and is currently involved in migrating the payment process for all our programmes into a new on-line database system, to which childcare services will have direct access to input child details. This new system will eliminate delays caused by the transmission of information and will allow for more frequent payments to be made.

It is my intention to review all aspects of the childcare support programmes with a view, inter alia, to ensure that the maximum benefit is provided to parents and children in need of childcare support and that the payment process is streamlined so that providers are in a position to meet their financial deadlines.