Since 1998, my Department has made grants available for child care expenses for students on the VTOS, youthreach and senior Traveller centre further education programmes. This was to facilitate the participation on these programmes of people for whom they were designed but who were not able to enrol on them because of child care responsibilities. These grants are paid annually by my Department to the vocational education committees. The grant is intended as a contribution to costs. VECs determine the level of provision and have discretion to bridge the gap between my Department's grant and the actual costs they approve.
The administration of grants to participants is a matter for individual VECs. A working group of representatives of my Department and the Irish Vocational Education Association has been established to review the criteria for the allocation of grants for child care for 2004 and into the future. The initial budget for this service in 2003 was €2,984,204. This was later supplemented by a special fund of more than €1.8 million, giving a total €4,821,759. This provision has been continued in 2004. Although the non-pay provision for such further education programmes as the vocational training opportunities scheme is contained in subhead D6, the child care provision is in subhead B5.