Jack Wall
Question:37 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of additional child care places funded by his Department provided since the beginning of 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18319/99]
Written Answers. - Child Care Services.
Health boards provide financial supports to certain pre-school services which cater for children who are regarded as being at-risk or disadvantaged. This function is in keeping with the boards overall responsibilities under the Child Care Act, 1991, in regard to the promotion of the welfare of children and provision of family support services. Funding of approximately £3.26 million is being provided by the health boards towards the service in 1999. The number of places currently funded is 7,000 approximately.
The health boards have indicated that it is difficult to give details of additional child care places funded since January 1999 as the pre-school term commences in September each year and because funding from a number of the boards is provided by way of grant aid, lottery funding or direct funding to service providers to enable them to provide a pre-school service rather than for the funding of individual pre-school places.
The Deputy will be aware that the Partnership 2000 Expert Working Group on Childcare under the auspices of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, examined the provision of a co-ordinated national framework for the development of a child care infrastructure including the financing and resourcing implications of its implementation. The report of the group was launched on 3 February 1999. The Government established an interdepartmental committee on child care chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to evaluate, cost and prioritise the proposals in the report and the child care proposals in An Action Programme for the Millennium, the report of the Commission on the Family and the report of the Forum on Early Childhood Education. The report of the committee has been noted by Government who have referred the report for consideration to a ministerial group.