As the Deputy may be aware, my Department has responsibility for leading the development of child care service delivery in Ireland. Funding of £250 million was allocated to my Department under the national development plan and was supplemented last October by a further Exchequer allocation of £26.5 million. This funding, which has a focus on equal opportunities and social inclusion, is being promoted as the Equal Opportunities Child Care Programme, 2000-2006. The overall aims of the programme are to improve the quality of child care in Ireland, to increase the number of child care facilities and childcare places and to introduce a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care services.
Funding measures available, which have been advertised in the national and local press, include capital and staffing grants to community based child care providers and capital grants to self-employed private child care providers.
I have been informed by my Department's equal opportunities child care section that, to date, there has been no application for funding under any of these measures for a play group in this school. While there is no closing date for the child care grants scheme, funding can only be allocated to groups on receipt of a completed application form and following the assessment and appraisal process. My Department will give due consideration to any application for funding for such a play group.
In addition to this funding, following a recent decision of the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion aimed at streamlining the processing of applications for child care facilities, responsibility for £12.5 million towards schools-based child care initiatives has now transferred to my Department from the Department of Education and Science.
Of this, £2.5 million is intended to promote the release of spare classrooms for use as child care facilities. Under this initiative, grants will be made available to schools where the management makes spare classrooms available for the provision of child care. The funding available could cover the refurbishment of the classroom as well as heating or insurance costs. A survey of primary and post-primary schools in relation to this matter was recently carried out by the Department of Education and Science and is currently being examined by Area Development Management Limited in terms of the practicality of the rooms for use as child care facilities.
The balance of £10 million transferred from the Department of Education and Science will be used to support schools-based after-school hours child care. It is envisaged that £5 million of this will be targeted at schools and communities which experience significant disadvantage while the remaining £5 million will be open to all schools. These initiatives are still in the developmental stage.
Further details of all child care funding schemes are available from the equal opportunities child care division of my Department, Lo-call 1890 20 90 30.
