Written Answers. - Child Care Places.
Richard Bruton
Question:
132
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
his estimate of the total number of full-time and part-time child care places necessary to meet present demand and emerging needs over the next three years; the total number of places available in the system for part-time and full-time care in the public and private sectors; and the way in which he will address the shortfall.
[9399/00]
It is generally acknowledged that there is an information gap in respect of the number of child care places available in this country and the demand for child care provision. In an effort to address this problem, my Department and the European Social Fund has commissioned ADM Limited to develop a national child care census and database of group settings i.e. all child care facilities and services excluding individual childminders. This project involves the co-ordination of a national child care census and the establishment of a database on child care facilities in Ireland and will provide information about the range, extent and location of services currently available in terms of quantity and quality. The county by county reports of the child care database will provide much needed facts and figures and for the first time baseline statistics on groups based child care facilities in Ireland will be available. The database will facilitate analysis of future demand for child care services.
Work on the individual county reports is almost complete and I intend to publish the full reports which will be available to county libraries and county child care committees as a reference document and an executive summary will be available to the public.
In addition, an interdepartmental group has been established which focuses on co-operation and co-ordinating between Departments and State agencies which have a role in childcare funding or training. This group will put in place mechanisms whereby the benefits of child care funding across Departments will be measured in terms of the numbers of child care places established and the quality of child care services and training.
These measures will assist in developing baseline statistics which will be used for planning the continuing development of child care provision.
As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has been allocated £250 million to develop child care provision over the next seven years under the National Development Plan 2000-2006. The funding will support my Department's equal opportunities child care programme, details of which I announced in December 1999. The criteria and the eligibility requirements for the measures within the programme are being developed at present and it is intended to promote some of the initiatives in the coming weeks, at which stage detailed information leaflets and application forms will be available from the equal opportunities child care section of my Department.
The initiatives that will be funded by my Department include the following measures. Expansion of the equal opportunities child care programme combining the following aspects capital grants to community based-not for profit organisations to support the establishment, upgrading and enhancement of child care facilities; staffing grants to assist community based-not for profit projects to fund the salary costs of child care workers; training supports designed to improve and expand the provision of child care training and support for innovative projects in the child care area.
Funding will also be provided towards the development of local child care network initiatives to provide mutual support for providers and facilitate the dissemination of information and learning materials thereby assisting the provision of a high quality service to parents and children as well as developmental support for the national voluntary child care organisations.
A further element will be the provision of a new capital grant scheme for self-employed child care providers up to 20 child care places, to assist in establishing and upgrading their facilities thus helping them to provide a better quality environment for children under their care.
My Department has also been given the responsibility to co-ordinate child care in the context of the national development plan. My Department has established and is chairing a National Co-ordinating Child Care Committee which will oversee the development of a child care infrastructure in a co-ordinated manner throughout the country. The interdepartmental synergies group mentioned above was established in February of this year and over the course of the coming months county child care committees will also be established to advance the provision of childcare facilities on a county basis.
In budget 2000 it was also announced that the Finance Bill will provide for accelerated capital allowances at the rate of 100% in the first year on child care facilities which meet the required standards as provided under the Child Care (Pre School Services) Regulations, 1996. The allowances are subject to clearance by the EU Commission. The relief applies to all child care facilities whether provided by employers or commercial child care operators and the reliefs can be used by owners of the facilities or by investors who wish to invest by way of leasing arrangements, subject to the normal tax rules which apply to such investors. The change will take effect in relation to expenditure incurred on and from 1 December 1999.
Further funding has been provided for child care in budget 2000 to the Departments of Health and Children, Social, Community and Family Affairs and Education and Science for the development of out-of-school hours child care services; to provide grants to schools which set up and run after-school child care services and establishment of an advisory service by the health boards.
Through the co-ordination structure, a system will be put in place to monitor the increase in the number of child care places and the improvement in quality arising from expenditure on child care provision by all State agencies.
It is my belief that these child care measures together with the increased co-operation and co-ordination between the voluntary and private sectors and statutory agencies in the child care area will not only lead to an increase in the quantity of child care places but also in the quality of service provision.
