Dan Neville
Question:389 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the EU assistance, if any, available for the establishment of proper child care facilities. [23798/98]
Written Answers - Child Care Services.
Equal opportunities is one of the four pillars of the EU Employment Guidelines, which were adopted in December, 1997. The guidelines invite member states, inter alia, to increase the percentage of women at work, to eliminate the obstacles in the way of their return to work and to raise the levels of access to care services including child care.
My Department has responsibility for the Equal Opportunities Child Care Programme which is designed to support local communities and employers who are trying to facilitate women and men who have child care responsibilities while accessing training, education and employment. It is targeted particularly at parents in disadvantaged areas and those on low pay who cannot access training, education and employment opportunities due to lack of affordable good quality child care. In July of this year I announced expenditure of £5.2 million on this programme, including EU funding, over the 1998-99 period. This funding is being provided to the following three initiatives:
Capital Infrastructure: Money is being targeted at community child care projects to enable them to upgrade-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 (90 Community Projects in receipt of funding).
Core Funding: This fund is being used to provide support to meet the expenditure required for full-time senior child care works in community child care projects with a focus on equal opprotunities and disadvantage (25 Flagship Projects in receipt of funding).
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 (21 companies, forming eight consortiums, in receipt of funding).
The EU element of the funding is one million ecus with the decision in principle to provide a further 1 million ECUs.
In addition, a child care database is being established by my Department in conjunction with Area Development Management Limited to document and quantify the range and extent of childcare provision and training being supported under the Community Support Framework (EU Regional and Social Funds) and to establish baseline data on other facilities-services in child care being supported by the State. EU funding of 144,875 ECUs is being provided for this project together with State funding of £38,327 (equivalent of 48,292 ECUs).
Child care is an outcome of other policy objectives in a range of EU programmes and initiatives. These are: Human Resources O.P. and Local, Rural and Urban Development O.P.
Community Initiatives: Leader, Urban, Employment and Interreg.
Funding is also provided to the Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation and the International Fund for Ireland.
There is some difficulty in isolating the level of EU funding which goes towards child care provision at present. This issue is being addressed through the childcare database, to which I have already referred.
The development of a national childcare infrastructure currently under consideration by the Expert Working Group on childcare which is chaired by my Department is intended to form the basis for demands for EU funding in the context of the next round of Structural Funds.