Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2004
342 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when finance will be provided in respect of an application for a child care group for Freshford, County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33540/04]
View answerI understand from inquiries I have made that an application for further capital grant assistance under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, EOCP, 2000-2006 was submitted by the group in question to my Department in April, 2004. The EOCP is a seven year development programme which aims to increase the availability and quality of child care to support parents in employment, education and training.
The level of demand for capital grant assistance was such that I considered it important to increase the capital provision for the present programme and, following discussions with my colleague the Minister for Finance, I was pleased that he made an additional capital provision totalling €90 million available to me over the period 2005 — 2009 in the context of the recent budget. Of this amount, €50 million is being made available under the present programme and the remaining €40 million will flow under the next phase of the post-2006 EOCP. This augments the increased EU funding of some €12 million made available earlier this year in recognition of the progress of the programme. This brings the total funding available for the programme to €499.3 million and now includes an increased provision for capital developments for which €205 million has been set aside.
I announced an allocation of almost €35 million in capital funding to community based not for profit groups last week and the availability of this additional capital funding will enable me to make further capital grant assistance available over the coming months and years to groups which address significant child care service gaps and where the project proposal represents good value for money. Much of the remaining current funding is required for ongoing supports to groups providing child care services to disadvantaged families to enable them to participate in employment, education and training opportunities.
The Deputy may be aware that the group in question has received a total of over €63,700 in capital and staffing grant support under the EOCP. This application for a large scale capital service will be considered against the programme criteria in the context of future commitments of capital funding. In the interim, it would be premature of me to comment further on this capital grant application.
