Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, agus táim buíoch de na Seanadóirí as an t-ábhar seo a ardú agus as gach rud a dúirt siad go dtí seo.
This is an important opportunity to respond to the motion as only last week we launched our national children's strategy, Our Children – Their Lives. Copies of the strategy have been sent to Senators and I know they will take the opportunity to study it. It represents the strongest possible demonstration to date by any Government of its commitment to Ireland's children. It is a clear statement of support to parents, local communities and to everyone who works with and for children. It is a major initiative in progressing Ireland's implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The strategy maps out a future plan which will provide a better way for us all to work together for and with children so they benefit from our economic success and enjoy a good quality of childhood experience. The strategy does this by drawing together all the different initiatives for children into a single plan of action and it gives leadership at national level for responding to the needs of children.
The motion talks about cherishing all the children of the nation equally. That is also a quote in our 1916 Proclamation. The national children's strategy goes substantially further by setting out a clear and unifying vision for all children up to the age of 18. That vision is an Ireland where children are respected as young citizens with a valued contribution to make and a voice of their own, where they are cherished and supported by family and the wider society and where they enjoy a fulfilling childhood and realise their potential.
This vision is only one part of a new co-ordinating framework for action outlined in the strategy, the purpose of which is to guide all our future efforts in relation to how we plan and manage the delivery of services to children. I do not propose to go into detail but I would like to briefly outline to the House some of the key aspects of the rest of that framework. The strategy identifies six operational principles to guide all future actions for children. It proposes a modern understanding of children's lives which we call the "whole child" perspective. There are three national goals for children which will be achieved over the ten years of the strategy. These involve listening to children, understanding their needs better and, most relevant to today's motion, ensuring that children will receive quality supports and services to promote all aspects of their development.
I said at the launch of the strategy that it is not just aims and hopes, but a real plan which will be delivered. Our commitment to delivery will be seen in the new structures we are putting in place to make it happen, but in a way that involves everyone, from the children to the Taoiseach, who needs to be involved in implementing such a wide-ranging plan of action. The Taoiseach will chair a Cabinet committee for children and, as Minister of State with responsibility for children, I will be a voice for all children. I am determined to drive the strategy to ensure the best possible outcome for them and to ensure that the strategy and children's policy development maintains a high profile at Government level. In addition, all future Government initiatives and legislation will be child-proofed so that children's interests will also be represented.
Children, children's organisations, researchers and the social partners will be members of a national children's advisory council. Our intention is to ensure that our success in developing the strategy will be matched by our success in implementing it. Some of the key elements involved in giving children a voice include establishing Dáil na n-Óg and the office of a children's ombudsman. Perhaps after my experiences here today I should also think about establishing Seanad na n-Óg. There will also be a dedicated national children's office to provide a major boost to managing cross-departmental issues. Departments will still carry the main responsibility for implementing the strategy in their own areas of responsibility. However, the national children's office will be the engine to drive it forward and I, as Minister of State with responsibility for children, will be the driver. A sum of £2 million has already been announced to support the establishment of the new structures I have just described and to commence the research proposals contained in the strategy.
The elimination of child homelessness is one of the first issues to be tackled. The elimination of child poverty is one of the main aims of the strategy. The most recent data from the ESRI shows that the level of consistent poverty among children is down to 12%. Our intention is to eradicate it completely.
Another key objective is that children's early education and developmental needs will be met through quality child care services and family friendly employment measures. In many ways, when compared to our European neighbours, Ireland is some way behind in terms of child care provision. However, it should be noted that the child care infrastructures developed in many European states were developed during their periods of economic growth and regeneration.
Child care provision was badly neglected in the past, with little or no investment by past Governments. In taking office, the Government recognised the urgent need to develop quality child care service provision and prioritised child care as a central issue on the social agenda. Economic success, along with the obvious benefits, presented new challenges and increased labour force participation by women, particularly mothers of young children, and a diminishing supply of child care places were recognised by the Government as issues requiring immediate action.
Lack of child care facilities is seen as a major impediment to parents who wish to participate in training, education or employment. Quality child care is not just an issue for parents who wish to participate in training, work or education. Central to any developments are the needs and rights of the child. The basic principle underlying the rights of children is that society has an obligation to meet the fundamental needs of children and to provide assistance to aid the development of the child's personality, talents and abilities. Research informs us that quality child care provides social and developmental opportunities which lead to lifelong benefits for children in relation to their participation in society both socially and economically.
In recognition of the complexity of the issue, shortly after taking office in July 1997, the Government established a expert working group on child care under the Partnership 2000 agreement to devise a national child care framework. The group was chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and membership compromised about 80 member representatives of the statutory sector, social partners, non-governmental organisations, providers, parents and individuals with expertise and interest in the development of child care.
The establishment of the expert working group facilitated wide consultation with all the interested parties. It deliberated for 18 months, undertook research projects and presented its report in February 1999. That report outlines a national child care strategy comprising recommendations in relation to regulations and standards, employment, training and qualifications in the child care sector, supports for child care providers, supports for parents in relation to child care costs and planning and co-ordination.
Many of the recommendations of the expert working group are effected in the programmes recently announced by the Government, particularly in relation to the increased investment in the development of child care service provision and the establishment of co-ordinating structures at national and local levels. The structures are designed to ensure a more effective, inclusive and co-ordinated approach to investment, finance and resources to develop quality child care which meets the needs of children nationwide.
The national development plan provides £250 million to the equal opportunities child care programme of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which operates from social inclusion and equal opportunities perspectives. The funding is being invested in capital and staffing grants for community groups and not for profit organisations, for the establishment and development of community based child care facilities and capital grants for self-employed child care services caring for no more than 20 children at any one time.
To date, 371 applications have been received for capital and staffing grants and 166 have been approved to the value of £14.1 million. The grants will support almost 5,300 child care places in these facilities, including the establishment of over 2,200 new child care places. The funding also covers grants to assist quality improvement, including training initiatives, the development of local child care networks and funding for the enhancement of the national voluntary child care organisations which provide vital supports to child care service providers.
On Friday, 17 November last, funding of £7.62 million was approved by the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, for seven organisations in recognition of the important role they have in assisting the development of quality child care service provision which meets the needs of children. The Government also recognises that the level of training and qualifications of child care workers impacts on the quality levels in child care service delivery. Funding is being provided to the OMNA early years project of the Centre for Social and Educational Research under the equal opportunities child care programme for the development of a national training and qualifications framework for the child care sector. This framework will contribute to the consolidation of the child care profession. The initiatives are designed to encourage development of child care service provision with the objectives of maintaining existing child care places leading to the creation of additional child care places and child care facilities and improving the quality of child care service provision which meets the needs of the child.
Further State funding and support are available to the child care sector under additional initiatives – £5 million to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to develop community based out of school hours projects, £5 million to the Department of Education and Science for grants to school managements to develop after school services and £1.4 million to the Department of Health and Children for the development of a child care advisory service by the health boards to enable them to assist others in the implementation of the regulations to ensure not just the provision places, but the quality of places as well.
The child care sector can also benefit from capital allowances introduced initially in budget 1999, providing tax relief, and again in budget 2000. Members will know that on 19 July last, the Taoiseach launched an information booklet entitled, Child Care Funding in Ireland, to advise child care providers and prospective child care providers of the range of supports available from various Departments and State agencies.
Most recently, the Government provided an additional £40 million for child care measures and this funding is being shared between four Departments. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been allocated £26.5 million which will provide £9 million for capital grants, £5 million for community based child care facilities which do not qualify under other schemes, £1 million for improved staffing grants for community based projects and £6.5 million for the national child minders initiative which is the first national initiative targeted specifically at child minders and will involve start up grants, information campaigns and other supports. In addition, £5 million is provided for improving quality through training and research.
The Department of Education and Science has been allocated £7.5 million of which £2.5 million is for the use of spare classrooms for child care. Over 100 schools have already signalled a willingness to allow their spare classrooms to be used for child care. This funding will provide them with financial support towards this. Also £5 million is provided for a national after school initiative.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been allocated £1 million for child care employment grants and the Department of the Environment and Local Government has been allocated £5 million for the provision of child care in local authority developments.
The Government has assigned responsibility for leading the co-ordination of child care services to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The role involves the establishment of structures at national and local levels, an interdepartmental committee, a national co-ordinating child care committee and, most importantly, county child care committees which will ensure representation from the statutory sector, the traditional social partners, parents and representatives of child care providers and the national voluntary child care organisations.
We believe child care must be strategically developed. A holistic approach is necessary and the needs of the children and parents must be fully met in any strategy development. We believe the only way to achieve this is to have the involvement of all of the parties concerned with child care working together in a spirit of partnership. The operation and establishment of the structures will have a vital role in the future development of quality child care. Never before has so much funding been made available to invest in child care but it must be wisely invested for greatest effect. Child care policy must provide for equality of access and participation in quality child care services by the children of the nation. The structures provide fora for discussion and exchange of information. I believe they will impact on our national child care strategy over the course of the national development plan.
My colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, recently published draft guidelines for planning authorities on child care facilities for consultation in May of this year. They will assist planning authorities in their efforts to make suitable provision for child care in their development plans and will be of interest to developers, builders and child care service providers and will assist the fulfilling of the requirement that the provision of services for the community, including crèches and other child care facilities, must be included as an objective in development plans.
Child benefit is a major concern of the motion being discussed tonight. It is a hugely important part of our income supports for families. While some income supports are selective, like the family income supplement for low paid workers or the child dependant allowances paid with social welfare payments, child benefit is not. It is paid to all families regardless of the parents income or labour force status. It, therefore, represents the commitment which we as a society make towards all of our children. It is normally paid to the mother and recognises the importance of the unpaid work done by the primary carer.
The value placed on the child benefit scheme by this Government is reflected in the level of resources invested in the scheme over the past number of years. The 1999 budget provided for a full year investment of over £40 million while last December's budget provided for a full year investment of £106 million bringing total investment in the scheme to £575 million annually. Some 491,000 families with a total of 967,000 children benefited from these increases. To illustrate the priority given by the Government to child benefit, the increases in the last budget represented in terms of cost 25% of the whole package of social welfare improvements.
Within the system, the importance of child benefit has been increasing. Since the mid-1990s it has been recognised that selective payments to children can cause severe poverty traps as such allowances are withdrawn on taking up work. Child benefit, however, is a universal scheme and, therefore, does not have undesirable effects. In view of this, it has been recent policy to increase child benefit substantially and, therefore, reduce the relative importance of child dependant allowances. At the same time, the combined incomes from both payments has exceeded inflation. It has increased by more than double the rate of inflation since 1994 and the proportion of this represented by child benefit has increased from 29% to 47%. The potential poverty trap represented by selective payments to children has reduced considerably.
It is sometimes argued that child benefit is not sufficiently targeted because it goes to all families and not just to the poorest. The Government does not accept this argument. All our families and all our children are deserving of support from the State. Anyone with children knows that regardless of how high the family's income may be, child benefit is a useful addition to the family budget. It is also interesting to note that research on the incidence of child benefit has shown that expenditure on the scheme is spread relatively evenly across all income levels, but with slightly less of the expenditure going to those households with highest incomes. It is the fairest way of getting resources to all families who need it.
It is the Government's intention that the child benefit scheme will continue to be strengthened as a key instrument in tackling child poverty and targeting resources at those families most in financial need. To this end, the Government has made a commitment to substantially increase the payment over the period of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, with a priority focus towards £100 per month for third and subsequent children. In line with this commitment, from September last, the basic child benefit monthly rates were increased to £42.50 a month in respect of each of the first two children and £56 a month in respect of the third and subsequent children. I assure the House that in framing next month's budget, the value of child benefit to families will be fully taken into account.
Regarding the link between child benefit and child care costs, Senators will be aware that the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness contains the commitment that, recognising the progress made in the negotiations in relation to child care and following a completion process with the social partners, the Government would adopt a strategy to support parents in meeting their child care needs. As part of this completion process, relevant proposals have been put forward by the social partners. These include a proposal from the community and voluntary pillar that child care costs should be addressed by means of a parental child care payment which would be paid in respect of all families with a child under the age of 14, regardless of whether the parent or parents were in paid employment. The payment would depend on the age of the child, with higher payments for children under the age of five.
A similar proposal has been made in a number of pre-budget submissions, including those from the National Women's Council of Ireland and the Childcare 2000 Campaign. On the other hand, the trade union movement has argued in favour of tax relief for child care with supplementary payments for parents outside the tax net.
All the options put forward by the social partners in relation to child care are being studied by the Government in the run-up to the budget. Obviously, I cannot pre-empt decisions by commenting on what role, if any, child benefit might play in that regard. However, regardless of what may be agreed in relation to the child care issue, the merits of child benefit in its own right are clear. We have shown our commitment to children by increasing the payment substantially and by targeting larger increases at larger families whose needs obviously are greater. We will continue in future budgets to increase this most valuable payment.
There are many other issues in relation to children that we could discuss at length, but I wanted to address the specific points that were raised. I thank the Senators for their comments and interest.