Vol. 536 No. 3
221 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the grants which are available from his Department to community groups seeking to provide crèche facilities for the local community in a community hall; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14283/01]
My Department has responsibility for leading the development of child care service delivery in Ireland. A sum of £344 million comprising EU and Exchequer funding has been allocated to my Department over the course of the National Development Plan, 2000-2006, to improve child care provision and quality throughout the country. This funding, which has a focus on equal opportunities and social inclusion, is being promoted as the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, 2000-2006, and is targeted at services which offer day care facilities and services for pre-school children and school going children out of school hours. The overall aims of the programme are to improve the quality of child care in Ireland, to increase the number of child care facilities and child care places and to introduce a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care services.
Schemes for capital and staffing grants for community based/not for profit group(s) who provide child care services are part of the Government child care funding initiatives administered under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, 2000-2006. Applications for funding under these measures can be made by submitting the relevant application form to my Department's equal opportunities child care section. Completed applications are assessed initially, on behalf of my Department, by Area Development Management Limited. This is followed by an assessment by the programme appraisal committee chaired by my Department before referral to me for final decision. As outlined in the general guidelines for funding measures, copies of which are available from my Department, applications are assessed according to the following five criteria, namely, the social economic profile of the area relating to the application, the quality of the proposal, the capacity of the applicant/s to implement the project, the level of integration/co-ordination, and the costings/value for money of the proposal.
Since the announcement of the availability of grants in April 2000, over £40 million in funding has been committed by my Department under the equal opportunities child care programme in the form of capital and staffing grants alone to child care services on the ground. To date, over 14,000 child care places will be supported by the funding committed by my Department which will include the creation of almost 6,000 new child care places. The funding will also enable many of the services extend their hours of operation and enhance the quality of the child care provided. The measures in place reaffirm this Government's commitment to keeping child care at the forefront of its social agenda. Further details of all child care funding schemes are available from the equal opportunities child care section of my Department, lo-call 1890 20 90 30.
