Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 December 2013
102. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she will take to address the availability and affordability of regulated child care services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53712/13]
View answerI am aware that lack of access to affordable, quality childcare is a significant barrier to many low-income and disadvantaged families seeking to avail of work opportunities. Significant investment, totalling more than €260m, is being provided this year by my Department to support childcare programmes. These include the Free Pre-School Year, from which approximately 68,000 children benefit annually. The financial benefit to the parent of a child participating in the free pre-school year is about €2,500. I have succeeded, despite the challenging budgetary situation, in maintaining the Pre-School Year as a universal and free programme, ensuring that a significant number of children can avail of quality pre-school services who would not otherwise be in a position to do so.
The Community Childcare Subvention programme, which provides targeted benefit primarily to lower income and disadvantaged families, is also accessible to parents who have relatively average incomes on the basis of their entitlement to hold a GP visit card. About 25,000 children each year benefit from this programme.
Funding is also provided by my Department to support the Childhood Education and Training Support programme which targets funding to support parents seeking to return to the workforce who are participating in Solas or Education and Training Boards education and training programmes. About 2,500 childcare places are provided each year under this initiative.
The School Age Childcare Initiative, which is a joint initiative between my Department and the Department of Social Protection, is also targeted at low-income parents availing of employment opportunities. The uptake of this programme during the first two pilot phases of the initiative has been low, and the eligibility criteria are being examined by the Department of Social Protection in the context of the third pilot phase. It is proposed to augment this programme in 2014 with a new strand for certain community employment participants.
I was recently asked to launch the Indecon Report on Support for Childcare for Working Families and Implications for Employment. This report, which was commissioned by Donegal County Council, sets out to address the issue of affordability and access to childcare supports, and a particular focus of the report is an independent examination of whether the cost of childcare represents a barrier to labour force participation, and an examination of potential policy options to address any childcare obstacles which may exist.
The Report does offer policy options which could be considered as part of any review of the current supports. I am aware that childcare costs in this country are high, and would like to expand and enhance the existing childcare support programmes to help address this issue when funding to meet the additional costs becomes available. However, my emphasis at present is on improving the quality of the services currently provided, and the challenge for the Department is to ensure that the maximum number of children can avail of quality supports within the available resources.
