Michael D. Higgins
Question:171 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will review the decision to terminate the payment of the crèche supplement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23319/04]
View answerWednesday, 6 October 2004
Questions (68)
Written answers
The objective of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is to meet immediate, short-term income maintenance needs. The scheme is not intended to be a long-term solution in any individual case.
Crèche supplements were intended to provide short-term emergency support to enable parents to avail of services such as counselling or addiction treatment programmes. It was never intended to be an ongoing source of funding for crèches.
It is estimated there are currently over 3,000 crèches and pre-schools in the country, the vast majority of which are privately operated. The remainder are community based and operate on a not for profit basis. Some are grant aided by health boards while others receive funding through the equal opportunities child care programme of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
This programme provides capital funding to both private and community based groups as well as funding for the staffing costs of certain community based child care facilities. The programme aims to allow parents to avail of educational, training or employment opportunities.
In addition, the early start pre-school programme, operated by the Department of Education and Science, targets children in the three to four age bracket in areas of disadvantage. The programme operates in some 40 schools.
Responsibility for the provision of child care supports rests with the health boards. The child care facilities which are grant aided by the boards generally cater for children who are referred by a public health nurse or other health professional where the child's needs or those of the parent, are of a medical or personal social services nature.
The practice of paying crèche supplements, as they came to be known, grew up in certain areas only and in an unplanned and unco-ordinated way. In a situation where there are specific programmes for the provision of child care support, it does not make sense that support of this kind be provided on a routine basis through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.
There needs to be consistency in the way the supplementary welfare allowance scheme operates and the changes introduced relating to crèche supplements were designed in order to refocus that scheme on its original objective of providing short-term income support.
The change to the scheme also served to highlight the need for adequate funding arrangements to be put in place for those crèches which are grant aided by the health boards. This issue was raised by my predecessor with the Minister for Health and Children and is a matter for consideration in the context of health service provision generally.