As the Deputy is no doubt aware, this Government has committed £250 million to the child care measure under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006. In April of this year, I announced the availability of capital and staffing grants for child care providers under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, 2000-2006.
Under my Department's equal opportunities child care programme staffing grants are available for community-based not for profit groups. As outlined in the general guidelines for the funding measures, applications are assessed according to the following criteria: the socio-economic and demographic profile of the area; the quality of the proposal; the capacity of the applicant to implement the project; the level of integration and co-ordination; and the costing and value for money of the proposal.
A number of factors are considered in assessing applications including the location of the service, the extent to which it will enhance child care provision in disadvantaged areas, the extent to which the project will maintain or increase the number of places and the extent to which the service will facilitate parents in accessing training, education and employment opportunities.
With regard to the community play school in question, an application for a staffing grant was received in my Department's equal opportunities child care section from this facility on 4 December 2000. Following a technical assessment by Area Development Management Limited, the application went before the programme appraisal committee on 22 February 2001. In this case the programme appraisal committee recommended that the project should not be funded on the basis that the application did not rate highly against the criteria of the equal opportunities child care programme. Following consideration of the recommendation of the programme appraisal committee, I made my decision not to approve funding to this application on 7 March 2001 and a letter issued to the group on 8 March 2001 in this regard.
In making my decision, I requested my Department's equal opportunities child care section to put in place arrangements to discuss, with the management committee of the group, the issues arising from the recommendation of the programme appraisal committee. Officials from my Department's equal opportunities child care section have been in touch with the group and, I understand, a meeting was held on 27 March 2001 between representatives of Area Development Management Limited and the management committee of the group to discuss further the reasons for the refusal of the application.