Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 May 1998

Vol. 491 No. 2

Written Answers. - Child Care Services.

Ruairí Quinn

Question:

38 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will give details of Ireland's proposals for childcare arrangements as outlined in the Luxembourg summit under the area of equal opportunities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7537/98]

Trevor Sargent

Question:

61 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether the additional moneys being made available for child care are adequate. [10131/98]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 61 together.

A sum of £2,615,000 is being provided by my Department for child care in 1998. This represents an increase of £1,793,000 on the figure for 1997. The additional moneys will build on the Government's pilot child care initiative as an equal opportunity measure to assist women and men in disadvantaged areas to avail of work, training and education opportunities.

Part of my remit as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is to develop policies and schemes to assist parents in reconciling work and family responsibilities. My Department has been working in partnership with Area Development Management Ltd. — ADM — to deliver the pilot initiative. ADM is an intermediary company established by the Government and the European Union to support social and economic development in 38 local area based partnerships and 33 community areas throughout Ireland. Through ADM's work with my Department, the area partnership boards have begun to advance child care as an equal opportunity measure in their areas and many of the partnerships have given "added-value" to the Department's child care programme.

The Equal Opportunity Childcare Programme will have four distinct elements. First, capital infrastructure. Money is being targeted at community child care projects to enable them to upgrade or enhance their facilities or establish new purpose built facilities for women and men who need child care while they are at work or availing of training. Second, core funding. This fund will be used to provide support to meet the expenditure required for full-time senior child care workers in up to 25 community childcare projects with a focus on equal opportunities and disadvantage. Third, employer demonstration child care initiative. This is being developed in partnership with IBEC to stimulate employer interest and involvement in supporting equal opportunity child care facilities. The purpose of this initiative will be to look at employer child care support from two distinct perspectives: how support for child care might alleviate difficulties associated with the growing skills shortage currently being experienced by some companies and how support for child care might assist in the implementation of an overall strategy to improve and enhance equal opportunities in the workforce. Fourth, expert working group on child care. The expert working group was established to develop a national child care framework under Partnership 2000. It will report to the Government in December. The members of the group are considering a range of child care issues, including the financial and employment implications of an integrated approach to the development of child care and are committed to a policy of equality of access and participation. They will also be considering the resourcing and sustaining of child care within rural and urban disadvantaged areas, whilst exploring practical solutions to overcoming identified barriers.

The equal opportunity child care programme was designed for inclusion in the National Employment Action Plan which Ireland submitted to the EU in Brussels in April. Following the Luxembourg Employment Summit at which equal opportunities was acknowledged as one of the four pillars of the EU, employment strategy guidelines were agreed by heads of Government, and member states undertook to take steps to increase the level of good quality child care in order to support women's and men's entry and continued participation in the labour market. Member states are also committed to giving specific attention to women and men who want to return to the workforce, after an absence, and to eliminate obstacles in the way of their return. For many families the lack of adequate child care is an obstacle which prevents them availing of training and work opportunities. Member states have also agreed to promote increased employment rates for women by acting to revise the under representation of women in certain economic sectors and their over representation in others.

The equal opportunity child care programme will be the first of a number of supports planned by the Government to enable women and men with children to have access to training and employment opportunities. I am firmly of the view that the strategy we are developing is an initiative of major national significance in the move towards achieving equal opportunities in Ireland. I have succeeded in getting child care included as an equal opportunity measure in the mid-term review of the Community Support Framework and I am hopeful that this will result in significant funding being made available to my Department for the development of an equal opportunity child care infrastructure in the post-1999 round of EU funding. The reality is that the funding for child care, in the context of an equal opportunities measure, has been increased by 200 per cent in the current year.