Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 Oct 2003

Vol. 572 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Child Care Services.

Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin

I thank you, Acting Chairman, for the opportunity to raise this important matter on the Adjournment. Many vocational education committees, including County Kerry VEC, have recently been informed by the Department of Education and Science that it will not provide financial support for participants in VTOS, Youthreach and Traveller training centres for child care in the current year. These savage cuts mean that second chance education and training opportunities will be denied to unemployed adults and early school leavers in the 2003-04 school year.

Equality in education, for which this Minister, Deputy Dempsey, has become the self-proclaimed Messiah, is once again being undermined by that same Minister, especially for the educationally disadvantaged and, in this case, particularly women. The allocation for child care grants this year has been cut dramatically by 37% on last year's allocation. These savage cuts were not announced publicly. Instead the Department of Education and Science informed vocational education committees about their budgets for the new year and vocational education committees had to pass on the news to their VTOS participants. All the VTOS participants and Youthreach schemes in Kerry received was a three line memorandum outlining the changes.

In County Kerry, for example, 128 students are involved in seven VTOS, four Youthreach and two Traveller training centres. They are based in Tralee, Dingle, Killarney, Listowel, Killorglin, Cahirciveen and Kenmare. What does the Minister have to say to those people who entered their courses on the basis that child care would be available to them? Child care funding will not be available for school going children. What will these participants do when their children are at school? They will have to abandon their classes as they are not in a position to pay for private child care. This will strongly discourage anyone with school-going children from entering education.

I refer to a letter I received from one participant in VTOS. This group of women tell me they are in the second year of their course and will now be unable to finish it, thus rendering their first year of study null and void. As these students rightly point out, these cuts actively discourage women with children from participating in courses, which is discrimination against women, especially women with children.

These cuts will undermine the purpose for which the Department introduced child care grants in 1998, which was to encourage women with children to engage in the training courses on offer and to help them to go on to further training and enter the workforce. The cuts will compound educational disadvantage in this State. Many students who have already signed up for courses will not be able to take up these places in 2003 without child care support. Students who commenced courses last year will not be able to continue their studies if vital child care funding is not restored.

We, as a society, actively encouraged people, particularly women, who could do so to take up places on VTOS courses in County Kerry and elsewhere in the country. The Government is telling them otherwise and is breaching that contract made with them when they began their courses. I ask the Minister to explain to the 128 VTOS participants in County Kerry, whom I represent, why he is preventing them from entering education.

Mr. Ring

I am disappointed that the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Demp sey, is not here tonight. Instead, we have the Minister of State for Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley.

The women and children of this country are violently sick with the Government. They are sick of the cutbacks and the way in which women and children are being treated by the Government. As Deputy Moynihan-Cronin said, these cutbacks are an attack on women and children. Under the Constitution, we aspire to treat all children equally. Yet, women and children are affected by these cutbacks.

It is a disgrace. Some of those affected are already on the VTOS courses and have entered into contracts for child care places in the private sector. They have paid for their places and now find they will not get their funding from the vocational education committees. This Government has been lecturing about putting people back into the workplace and into education. Yet what is happening? For a measly few thousand euro they are cutting back on the child care and this will adversely affect women and children throughout the State. If these people have any chance at all at present, they will have no chance if they cannot get some education and they will have no chance at all if they cannot get back into the workplace. These people do not want to be on social welfare for the rest of their lives. They want to be educated and to get into the workplace. All they are asking from the Government is a chance.

Last week I met women in Castlebar, Belmullet, Swinford, and Ballinrobe who have to give up these courses simply because the Government wants to save a few thousand euro. Why not cut back on the Government jet and the chocolate the Minister has when on it? Why does the Government not cut back on the State receptions we will be having next year for the EU Presidency? Of course there will be no shortage of money then. The money will be found to wine and dine all those foreign dignitaries.

The Government must immediately find the funding – they always can find it when pressed – to provide the child care facilities for the women taking up these VTOS courses. These cutbacks are an attack on women, children and the weakest in society. This is the same Government who cut back on the back to education scheme, the back to work scheme and the summer jobs scheme. Who is it targeting all the time? People on low incomes.

Alex Ferguson of Manchester United FC is fighting with his Irish colleagues about the famous horse, Rock of Gibraltar. That horse is making thousands of euro on stud fees and not one cent of tax is charged to Mr. Ferguson. Can Alex Ferguson afford to pay a bit of tax? I suppose he could be on anything from €2 million to €3 million a year. Can Mr. Magnier and all his friends who own that horse afford to pay tax on those stud fees? They can and those taxes should then be used to pay the VTOS.

There is another way the Government can save money. The Comptroller and Auditor General said the Government has spent €47 million on reports and consultants. The friends of the Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrat Parties should put that money back and give it to the people who need it – the people on the VTOS courses. I hope the Minister of State's reply will be a positive one for the people in counties Mayo, Kerry, Dublin and Cork. They are not asking for too much. They are simply asking for a small bit help up the ladder.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. T. O'Malley)

I am glad to have the opportunity to respond to the issue raised by the Deputies on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey.

The VTOS was established in 1989 as a special initiative designed to cater for the education and training needs of the long-term unemployed. The current running cost of the programme is approximately €50 million per annum. VTOS has proved to be successful in opening up learning and progression opportunities for people who have been marginalised by unemployment. It has been highly responsive to the current requirements of employers in that it equips participants with a range of general education and vocational qualifications, and a wide range of core transferable skills. For each of the years 1994 to 2002, the percentage of participants who completed the programme and progressed to work or further education was 70% or more.

In 1998, the European Social Fund made available a certain amount of money to be used for paying child care expenses of people for whom VTOS, Youthreach and senior traveller centre programmes were designed but who were not able to enrol on them because of child care responsibilities. The initial period of funding from the ESF has now ceased and grants to vocational education committees in relation to child care are met from the Exchequer.

The scheme of grants to vocational education committees for child care costs has always been constrained by the amount of money provided in the annual estimates. The grant from the Department of Education and Science was, and continues to be, a contribution to costs. It is a matter for the vocational education committees to address the issue of child care costs having regard to the grant available.

The initial letter of September 1998 on the scheme of grants towards child care costs set out the parameters of the scheme. It indicated that there was flexibility within the provision as to how best to target and prioritise the needs of eli gible students. However, it also stipulated that the service would be subject to the constraints of the overall grant made available, which could not be exceeded. The process of allocating the general child care fund among vocational education committees begins each year with a request to vocational education committees to complete a form accounting for the previous year's grant, and projecting expenditure for the current year.

Up to 2002, the amount of money made available annually to each VEC was enough to meet the costs arising. However, the estimates of financial requirements of vocational education committees in this area have been constantly increasing. In 2002, the estimates submitted by vocational education committees for that year exceeded the initial allocation available. However, supplementary funds of nearly €2 million became available towards the end of 2002, which enabled the Department to bridge the gap between the initial amount allocated and the vocational education committees estimated costs. The amount initially made available in 2002 was just over €3 million, but actual final payout was over €4.7 million. The budget provision for childcare in 2003 is nearly €3 million.

Accordingly, the allocation to each VEC was drawn up in the light of the funding then available. To date, the majority of vocational education committees have made representations to the Department of Education and Science that the grant allocated will not meet their estimate of costs. Arising from this, the Department has asked them to indicate their estimate of minimum requirements for child care services for the rest of the year. The Minister for Education and Science appreciates that a number of vocational education committees are experiencing difficulties in this area. He is also very conscious that this may impact on the options available to adult learners with regard to participation in second chance education.

The Department of Education and Science is currently in liaison with vocational education committees with a view to providing some special assistance to those vocational education committees that are particularly badly affected. For 2004, the Department and the Irish Vocational Education Association have initiated a joint review of child care provision for VTOS, youthreach and Traveller training centre programmes to explore ways of obviating the difficulties that have arisen this year.

It is also important to acknowledge the significant commitment the Government has made to addressing child care issues. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been given responsibility for the co-ordination of the equal opportunities child care programme as part of the national development plan. A sum of over €300 million has been allocated to child care under the NDP. The objectives of this strategy are to improve the quality of child care, to increase the number of child care facilities and to introduce a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care services.

I trust that I have clarified for Deputies the nature and extent of the difficulties that have arisen and the steps being taken to address them.

Mr. Ring

Another report and no money.