Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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351. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide a breakdown on the way the €14 million announced in budget 2014 for after-school places was utilised; the number of places that have been created; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40105/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2013, this Department together with the Minister for Social Protection announced a new €14 million After-school Childcare (ASCC) Programme. The programme is part of the Government’s overall strategy to support low-income and unemployed persons to return to the workforce and is targeted at families that are most in need at a critical time in their progression into employment.

The take-up of the ASCC programme in 2013 was low with only a small number of parents choosing to enrol their children for childcare support under this new initiative. The low take-up of the ASCC programme did provide the opportunity to re-focus some of the scheme’s €14 million budget towards other initiatives in the childcare sector.

€2 million is provided to support the ASCC programme and funds in the region of 500 after-school places. €7.5 million is allocated to provide for the introduction of the Community Employment Childcare (CEC) initiative under of the Training and Employment (TEC) Programme. This initiative will provide approximately 1,800 places for Community Employment workers seeking to access part-time and after-school care.

The balance of the funding - €4.5 million - has been allocated to provide for quality improvement initiates under the Early Year Quality Agenda which is being progressed by my Department. This allocation is being specifically targeted to provide for additional recruitment in the Pre-school Inspectorate, the up-skilling of staff in the childcare sector and the introduction of the National Early Years Quality Support Service to provide mentoring and support quality initiatives in early years services.