Vol. 527 No. 1
127 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in making a decision on an application by a person from Roscommon for the equal oppor tunities child care programme 2000-2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27913/00]
The Deputy is referring to a project which applied for capital grant funding under an initiative designed for self-employed child care providers in my Department's equal opportunities child care programme. The programme has been allocated £250 million under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, for a range of initiatives. The application was submitted for funding under an initiative which was designed to support small scale child care services, that is, those services catering for not more than 20 children at any one time.
I understand that the application is currently under consideration by the equal opportunities child care programme appraisal committee which was established to assess each application received and to make recommendations in each case. The programme appraisal committee is chaired by my Department and is made up of representatives of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Education and Science, the BMW regional assembly; the S&E regional assembly and Area Development Management Limited.
I have been informed that the programme appraisal committee expect to be in a position to make a recommendation in this case shortly. I will be in a position to consider this case on receipt of the appraisal committee's recommendations.
