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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 1 Jul 1999

Vol. 507 No. 4

Written Answers. - Grant Payments.

David Stanton

Ceist:

203 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the financial support, if any, by way of grant aid or otherwise available to individuals to help them to establish créches or play schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17207/99]

The equal opportunities childcare programme, which is the responsibility of my Department, provides a budget for the two year period 1998-99 to support the development of child care facilities. The programme is designed primarily to support local communities who are helping parents who have child care responsibilities to access employment, education and training opportunities. It is targeted primarily at community based projects in disadvantaged areas but also has an equal opportunities dimension to assist women and men generally to meet their child care needs.

The equal opportunities childcare programme is part-funded by the EU and has a budget of approximately £6 million, over £4 million Exchequer and £2 million EU funding, for the period 1998-99. The equal opportunities childcare programme is administered by Area Development Management Limited on behalf of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

To date the programme has funded capital infrastructure for 106 projects, the salary costs of senior child care workers for 25 community-based projects and a financial contribution towards eight employer consortia demonstration child care projects involving 21 employers. The allocation of these funds was related to the overall objectives of the programme and made on foot of applications received by June 1998 in response to a national media advertising campaign.
Additional funding from the European Social Fund has recently been provided for the programme. It is a requirement that European Social Fund moneys are used for training and development purposes. They cannot be used for capital initiatives. Accordingly, the additional funds were provided to the equal opportunities childcare programme, for example, to assist the up-skilling of personnel working in the child care area. No additional funding was available for capital purposes.
Applications to my Department for assistance with capital projects can only be considered in the context of the allocations for child care in the budget for 2000.
With regard to future support for child care the Government established an interdepartmental committee on childcare to evaluate, cost and prioritise the child care proposals in the reports of the expert working group on childcare, the Commission on the Family and the National Forum for Early Childhood Education in addition to the Government's child care proposals in An Action Programme for the Millennium. The interdepartmental committee is due to report by August.
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