Written Answers - Child Care. – Dáil Éireann (28th Dáil) – Wednesday, 2 May 2001

Written Answers - Child Care.

Frances Fitzgerald

Ceist:

204 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications in each county for child care support; the number per county applying for the provision of private child care plans; the number applying for community places; the amounts allocated in each category; and the current drawdown. [12502/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

Under my Department's Equal Opportunities Child Care Programme, 2000-2006, I have approved funding totalling more than £35.4 million to date to numerous child care groups or providers around the country through the provision of capital funding and, in the case of community based child care providers, staffing grants. Funding of £10 million has also been allocated for quality improvement measures such as to support and enhance the national voluntary child care organisations, to encourage the development of local child care networks and local child care training models. Table 1 which follows outlines the number of applications received, by county, under the following headings: capital grant to private sector or self-employed child care providers; capital grant to community based not for profit child care groups; staffing grant to community based not for profit child care groups.

Table 1 – Capital and staffing grant applications received by county up to 30/04/01

County	Private Sector/Self-employedprovider Capital	Community based/Not-for-profitgroups Capital	Community based/Not-for-profitgroups Staffing	Total
Carlow	3	3	5	11
Cavan	3	6	11	20
Clare	5	7	8	20
Cork	26	29	37	92
Donegal	9	15	22	46
Dublin	49	40	74	163
Galway	16	16	27	59
Kerry	6	10	22	38
Kildare	21	2	5	28
Kilkenny	11	1	5	17
Laois	6	5	5	16
Leitrim	6	8	16	30
Limerick	9	3	15	27
Longford	8	2	7	17
Louth	9	3	3	15
Mayo	5	7	19	31
Meath	12	0	2	14
Monaghan	1	10	8	19
Offaly	8	0	4	12
Roscommon	5	5	8	18
Sligo	1	5	8	14
Tipperary	4	11	12	27
Waterford	8	5	7	20
Westmeath	4	2	9	15
Wexford	11	7	12	30
Wicklow	8	6	5	19
Total	254	208	356	818

The Deputy has also asked for details of the funding allocated under each of the categories outlined above. Table 2 details the level of funding committed to date per county under these three headings.

Table 3 provides details of the draw down of funding by the project promoters for the period up to 30 March 2001. In the case of capital grant applications, the difference between the amounts committed and the amounts paid out reflects the fact that payments are made in stages as work progresses. In many cases, building contractors are unable to begin work on projects as soon as had been expected due to other work commitments. In the case of staffing support applications to community-based not-for-profit groups, the difference between the amounts committed and the amounts drawn down reflects the fact that the grants are allocated over a three year period and the requirements placed on groups in relation to recruitment procedures. I have been informed by my Department's equal opportunties childcare section that there will be a marked increase in the actual expenditure by the end of the next quarter. Funding has also been drawn down to date by projects approved funding under the quality improvement category.

Table 2 – Funding approved by county under Capital and staffing grant measures up to 30/04/01

County	Number of grants approved to date	Capital grants to Private Sector/ Self-employed providers£IR	Capital grants to Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Staffing grants to Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Total Approved per county£IR
Carlow	4	12,424	0	251,725	264,149
Cavan	11	0	154,644	441,202	595,846
Clare	5	97,950	47,000	31,200	176,150
Cork	51	318,281	1,209,415	3,286,525	4,814,221
Donegal	20	159,517	526,265	429,131	1,114,913
Dublin	92	676,099	3,586,393	6,680,145	10,942,637
Galway	30	112,136	446,586	1,169,685	1,728,407
Kerry	25	66,700	1,114,404	1,688,327	2,869,431
Kildare	12	186,293	19,226	255,258	460,777
Kilkenny	5	110,600	0	107,108	217,708
Laois	6	17,056	3,625	300,368	321,049
Leitrim	18	51,529	682,780	859,930	1,594,239
Limerick	15	55,978	5,000	1,301,367	1,362,345
Longford	9	142,100	18,256	513,250	673,606
Louth	5	35,803	134,210	475,100	645,113
Mayo	17	108,437	67,662	774,300	950,399
Meath	6	163,035	0	0	163,035
Monaghan	8	6,500	339,300	284,900	630,700
Offaly	7	54,064	0	94,187	148,251
Roscommon	12	114,585	35,325	375,969	525,879
Sligo	9	6,403	136,013	434,425	576,841
Tipperary	10	45,325	10,000	657,674	712,999
Waterford	13	150,198	98,862	708,435	957,495
Westmeath	6	42,600	0	476,158	518,758
Wexford	17	74,800	1,231,464	955,098	2,261,362
Wicklow	8	128,975	12,000	116,490	257,465
Total	421	2,937,388	9,878,430	22,667,957	35,483,775

Table 3 – Drawdown of funding approved by county under capital and staffing grant measures up to 30/03/01

County	Capital funding for Private Sector/ Self-employed providers£IR	Capital funding for Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Staffing funding Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Total drawdown by county up to 30/03/01£IR
Carlow	0	0	20,000	20,000
Cavan	0	30,000	28,175	58,175
Clare	24,000	0	20,000	44,000
Cork	69,906	200,000	260,000	529,906
Donegal	63,800	0	60,000	123,800
Dublin	143,245	222,463	450,000	815,708
Galway	37,906	16,500	60,000	114,406
Kerry	4,613	254,980	180,000	439,593
Kildare	33,953	0	20,000	53,953
Kilkenny	40,000	0	0	40,000
Laois	5,753	0	60,000	65,753
Leitrim	9,589	112,532	80,000	202,121
Limerick	37,696	3,000	100,000	140,696
Longford	28,000	0	80,000	108,000
Louth	17,803	0	0	17,803
Mayo	12,000	0	20,000	32,000
Meath	40,999	10,383	0	51,382
Monaghan	4,875	42,750	60,000	107,625
County	Capital funding for Private Sector/ Self-employed providers£IR	Capital funding for Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Staffing funding Community based/ Not-for-profit groups£IR	Total drawdown by county up to 30/03/01£IR
Offaly	7,674	0	20,000	27,674
Roscommon	28,000	12,994	60,000	100,994
Sligo	0	10,313	80,000	90,313
Tipperary	0	3,000	80,000	83,000
Waterford	32,212	50,759	20,000	102,971
Westmeath	0	0	80,000	80,000
Wexford	36,640	53,379	80,000	170,019
Wicklow	35,000	0	20,000	55,000
Total	713,664	1,023,053	1,938,175	3,674,892

Progress in relation to the report's recommendations is, as I am sure the Deputy will appreciate, in view of the complexities of the issue and the multiplicity of service providers involved, at various levels and stages.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 2 May 2001