Eamon Gilmore
Question:16 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the progress that has been made in relation to the pilot childcare scheme; and the plans, if any, he has to establish these schemes around the country.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Pilot Childcare Scheme.
One million pounds has been included in this year's Estimate for my Department for childcare projects.
The provision is intended to support the initiation of a limited number of projects for the establishment, on a pilot basis, of childcare measures, utilising the skills of trained local people to enable local residents to undertake education, training, re-training and employment opportunities to which they would otherwise be unable to aspire, in the absence of a child-minding facility.
Grants will be directed towards funding initial start-up, capital expenditure such as the adaptation of premises, purchase of equipment, the cost of essential training, etc., associated with innovative childcare projects sponsored by community groups.
To be eligible for consideration for grant assistance projects must be located in disadvantaged areas, as designated in the local development programme, and also involve partnerships between community groups and local employers.
Discussions have taken place at official level between the Departments which are already involved with area partnership companies in grant-aiding community programmes to ensure effective interDepartmental co-ordination in the distribution of Exchequer funds.
Discussions are also well advanced regarding procedures for applications to ensure that these can be processed when the necessary financial approval becomes available on the passing of my Department's Estimate by the Dáil.
The Minister announced the additional allocation for such projects in mid-March. He did not indicate then that it would be restricted to the extended Programme for Economic and Social Progress areas. Will they be the only areas to which the scheme will apply? If that is so, he has merely given details of an existing scheme which is part and parcel of the extended Programme for Economic and Social Progress area scheme. People who live outside those areas will be excluded. Will the Minister agree that there are many areas of rural poverty and isolation, and the people in those areas who would greatly benefit from such childcare projects will not have an opportunity to make their case? His statement on the pilot scheme is not in keeping with his earlier one.
I cannot say whether this is a new scheme, but an additional £1 million has been secured under the Department's 1994 Estimate for childcare projects. This scheme was intended to be directed towards disadvantaged areas. I would have thought that objective would have received Deputy McManus's support and that money should be directed where it is most needed, namely disadvantaged areas, rather than dissipated in well to do areas, which may not need State funding for this purpose. Arrangements to allocate these moneys are well advanced. Discussions with the area partnership companies are well progressed and the grant aiding arrangements will be put in place shortly. Application forms will issue on the passing of the Estimate for the Department by the Dáil, hopefully within the next few weeks.
I have argued strongly that the money should be spent in disadvantaged areas, but I do not support the use of this blunt instrument. Does the Minister recognise that drawing lines on a map is a blunt instrument which does not acknowledge the reality of the level of deprivation? The position is complex and it is not sufficient to earmark certain areas of deprivation and ignore the rest, which effectively is what the Minister proposes. I am sure applications have been submitted to the Minister which may not be covered under the national programme, but the people who live in those areas have a right to be considered along with those who live in other areas. The system could be compared with means testing and there is always someone who does not qualify under the scheme.
Deputy McManus misunderstands the position.
I do not.
I have not drawn lines on maps regarding the administration and allocation of such funds.
What about the National Development Plan?
These funds are intended to be directed towards disadvantaged areas.
The Programme for Economic and Social Progress areas.
I did not say Programme for Economic and Social Progress areas. I said the money should be directed towards disadvantaged areas. An application received from a disadvantaged area will be eligible for a grant from the £1 million which the Government has made available for the pilot project. I hope and expect it will greatly assist many disadvantaged communities in rural and urban areas. People will not be excluded by reason of where they live. The only qualification for eligibility is that the application should be made by a disadvantaged area. That qualification is not marked on maps and I do not intend to exclude people because of where they live.
I invite the Minister while canvassing for the forthcoming election in Dublin South-Central to consider the disadvantaged areas of St. Theresa's Gardens, Dolphin House and Fatima Mansions with a view to setting up a pilot inter-parish scheme for those areas? Will he agree that one of the best ways to tackle the issue of childcare is to provide decent housing? Will he examine the report of the Lord Mayor's commission on housing, which I set up? It was chaired by Dr. Garrett FitzGerald and included a cross section of politicians and other members of the public with a view to introducing equality into the allocation of housing for those living in inner city flat complexes.
The question of housing is a separate matter. I support the provision for housing. The Government has allocated additional funds for housing and has provided for the building of more houses this year than for many years. The houses are of good quality, which is more than can be said of many houses built in the past. Like Deputy Mitchell, I have been happy to participate in canvassing in the Dublin South-Central constituency and I assure him that any application I receive from the areas he mentioned or other disadvantaged areas will receive sympathetic consideration.