I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this important matter and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Fitzgerald, for coming into the House to deal with the matter.
The Killinarden area has approximately 2,000 local authority houses and has been established for approximately 20 years. The area has experienced many difficulties because of unemployment, lack of opportunity and so on, but its people are resilient, they have overcome difficulties in the past and I am sure will do so in the future.
The Killinarden pre-school playgroup was established 17 years ago by Sr. Bernardine and has flourished. There are currently 50 children attending the pre-school playgroup with a frequent waiting list of up to 40. The playgroup is operated by four women from the Killinarden area who, between them, have more than 15 years' practical experience of running such a facility. They were trained by the excellent organisation, the Irish Pre-school Playgroup Association, and a number of them have been involved with Barnardos. These women have considerable experience in this area. They have had to equip the pre-school playgroup through fundraising and they provide a high standard of equipment and services. They have received only minimum support from the local authority, approximately £300 in the past number of years. The fact that local women are involved in the playgroup is an advantage because they are familiar with the families sending children to it. In that regard they could be more helpful than people from outside the area who, through no fault of their own, might not be as intimately involved with families in the area.
Unfortunately these women now find that their project is at risk. While I welcome the decision by the Minister for Education to establish eight pre-school pilot projects, nevertheless, the net effect in the Killinarden area is that those four women will have to abandon their classroom because it is the only one available in the area for the pilot project. While they welcome the pilot project, because of their commitment and experience, those women regret they were not considered as part of it. The pilot project will be based in west Tallaght and cater for approximately 60 young persons. Consequently, the need for the pre-school play group in the Killinarden area will continue, but the difficulty for these four women is that the children will probably gravitate towards the pilot project because the funding is substantial. The Minister for Education is providing two specially trained teachers, two child care assistants and substantial grant aid amounting to £4,500 to equip the classroom and £1,500 for parental development associated with the facility.
Although the project is welcome, I appeal to the Minister of State to use her good offices to try to achieve flexibility. Perhaps the Minister would be prepared to give a direction that where a pilot project is established it should not impinge on an existing facility and certainly should not sweep it away. A mechanism should be found to fully involve the four women operating the pre-school play group in the Killinarden area in the pilot project — the same thing might be done in other areas. That would solve the problem I raised.
