Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 9 Nov 2000

Vol. 525 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Child Care Facilities.

Ms Fitzgerald:

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to address this issue. There is an awareness of the need for and a commitment to the provision of more child care facilities throughout the country. Everyone recognises that there is a need for more facilities. While the Government targeted more money at this area recently, it does not appear to have been spent or allocated to any great degree, judging from replies to parliamentary questions.

It has emerged that there is a major problem regarding planning applications for child care facilities throughout the country. Quite a number of refusals for child care facilities by planners have been given and quite a number of temporary permissions, as opposed to final permissions, have been given. In a number of cases that have come to my attention, particularly in the Dublin area, decisions made have been contrary to the inspectors' reports on the facilities. Inspectors have recommended that permission should be given for the proposed facilities, but the planning authorities have decided that permission should not be given or that they should be given only temporary permission. Child care providers are concerned permission for their facilities with be withdrawn, in other cases they are encountering difficulties in getting permission and in other cases that have been referred to An Bord Pleanála permission has been refused.

This must be set in the context of draft planning guidelines issued by the Department earlier in the year for the development of child care facilities. I refer to the consultation draft guidelines for planning authorities on child care facilities. They state specifically that development plans should include proposals for child care facilities and other community development projects. That is important because too many housing estates have been without facilities for children and families. Too much development has taken place without taking account of community needs. These guidelines are a welcome development regarding the land use planning aspects of child care provision.

Current providers are uncertain about the current position and those considering establishing facilities wonder if it is worth the bother of trying to get planning permission. Will the Minister of State outline the scale of this problem? Has it been brought to his attention or to the attention of the Department? Can he indicate the number of refusals for permission for facilities throughout the country given by planning authorities and the number of refusals given by An Bord Pleanála? We need an overall picture of the position. If the Minister of State does not have those figures, perhaps he would organise to obtain them.

If provision of a service for community facilities is included in the guidelines and will be included in the regulations when they are issues, what is happening at present? Why are planning authorities not taking the guidelines into account? There have been many examples of cases where they apparently have not been taken into account. A discussion on this area is required. What are the planning issues that need to be discussed? What criteria need to be in place regarding the development of child care facilities, as there are different rights and obligations on both sides. We need to be clear on what those are from a planning perspective. Can the Minister of State tell us when the new guidelines will be issued to local authorities and to An Bord Pleanála? What action will the Minister take to monitor their effectiveness? Can the Minister of State outline the position that applies at present and what action can be taken to resolve it, as it must be resolved if we intend to ensure the removal of the stress faced by parents due to the shortage of places and if we are to ensure there is a greater supply of child care facilities throughout the country. They can operate very well and in a way that does not affect anyone else. Will the Minister of State move with all possible haste to put new guidelines in place and to monitor their implementation by local authorities and by An Bord Pleanála.

Mr. Molloy:

The Minister cannot respond to this matter and he has asked me to do so on his behalf.

Government policy on child care is to increase the number of child care places available and to improve the quality of child care services for the community. In pursuance of this policy, the Minister published draft guidelines on child care facilities for planning authorities, for public consultation in May this year. The consultation period has now elapsed and the submissions received by the Department during the public consultation process are being considered with a view to publishing final guidelines next January.

The draft guidelines explicitly acknowledged that planning permission for child care facilities had been identified as an area of concern in child care service development. The draft guidelines are intended to address this concern by ensuring a consistency of approach throughout the country to the treatment of planning applications for child care facilities and to identify the planning issues appropriate to child care facilities. The final guidelines will be issued as ministerial guidelines under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, which has been commenced with effect from 1 November 2000. Section 28 requires that planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála shall have regard to any such ministerial guidelines in the performance of their functions.

The guidelines will assist planning authorities in their efforts to make suitable provision for child care in their development plans and will also be of interest to developers, builders and child care service providers. The guidelines will also assist planning authorities in fulfilling the requirement under the Planning and Development Act, 2000, that the provision of services for the community, including créches and other child care facilities, must be included as an objective in development plans. This provision will apply from 1 January 2001.

The production of the guidelines had been recommended in the Report of the Expert Working Group on Childcare established under the terms of Partnership 2000. The draft guidelines were prepared by a committee of officials from my Department, the Departments of Health and Children and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, local authority planning departments, An Bord Pleanála and the Eastern Regional Health Authority. The guidelines will enable planning authorities to ensure the proper planning and development of their areas while meeting the identified need for additional child care provision.

The draft guidelines recommend that planning authorities should include in their development plans policies and objectives for the provision of child care facilities. The guidelines specify a variety of locations that are considered to be appropriate for child care facilities, including larger housing estates, industrial estates and other employment centres, in the vicinity of schools and in neighbourhood and district centres. The guidelines outline general criteria which should be considered by planning authorities in assessing an application for a child care facility such as size and nature of the facility, the benefits that could accrue to the area from the facility, etc. Submissions on the draft guidelines have been made to the Department by a variety of relevant interests including An Bord Pleanála, planning authorities, health boards, child care service providers, the Irish Planning Institute and the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland. These submissions are being considered carefully in the Department and will be fully taken into account in the finalisation of the guidelines. In view of the importance of the issue and the advanced state of the guidelines, when issuing the draft guidelines the Minister asked planning authorities to take the guidelines on board straight away. I assure the Deputy that the Government is taking every action to ensure that the planning system does not stand in the way of the development of much-needed child care facilities.

Deputies are aware that the Minister is statutorily prohibited from getting involved in individ ual cases. He is aware of recent press coverage on refusal of planning permission for child care facilities. The coverage did not deal with the facilities for which planning permission was granted. It is in all our interests that proper planning standards are adhered to. The draft guidelines address the issues arising from the need to increase child care provision while following proper planning principles. We are confident they will lead to a better understanding of all these issues by all interested parties.