Vol. 540 No. 2
27 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of child care or crèche facilities which exist within local or national offices under the control of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19759/01]
Staff of the Department may avail of child care facilities in the Civil Service crèche, located in Mount Street, Dublin. Parents pay a weekly fee of £85.00 per child. A second Civil Service crèche, based in Marlborough Street, is expected to open in autumn 2001.
A crèche is to be provided in the planned Northside Civil Centre at Coolock, which is due for completion in autumn 2002. This centre will replace Gardiner Street local office and integrates certain other State services. This crèche will cater for 25 children of the staff working in the centre and provide short-term care for up to 20 children of the customers using the centre.
As part of the Government's policy on the provision of child care, an allocation of £10 million capital over two years for the provision of 15 crèches for civil servants throughout the country was announced in Budget 2000. Following on this announcement, I understand discussions took place between the Department of Finance and Civil Service unions in relation to the structures necessary to oversee a major expansion of child care facilities of this nature. Arising from these discussions, it was agreed centrally that a new Civil Service Childcare Agency would be established to promote and manage Civil Service crèches.
In this context, my Department has undertaken a survey of its employees to assess the level of interest among staff in availing of Civil Service child care facilities and the preferred nature and location of such facilities. My Department is currently liaising with the Department of Finance, with a view to submitting a proposal for funding under the allocation announced in the budget. It should be noted, however, that on the basis of the survey undertaken, the level of interest among staff appears to be very low, with only 155 staff, which represents about 3.5% of all employees, from about 16 different locations, expressing interest.
My question was the total number of places the Minister has provided since he came to office. He is the leading Minister in a Department of 4,500 people with more than 200 offices throughout the country. Is he admitting to the House that he has yet to provide one child care place in any of the social welfare offices locally, nationally or regionally? Will he agree he has a brass neck to come in here and admit that, given that he and his Government colleagues continuously lecture and hector the private sector about its responsibilities to provide child care facilities and crèche facilities when the public sector has done nothing to do so over the past two years? Is this not another example of the way in which the Government's approach to child care is in complete tatters with no Minister leading the issue in any of the on line Departments?
I reject what the Deputy said. The Government put forward a sum of £250 million in the national development plan for the provision of the supply of extra places in child care—
The number of places have gone down.
—but not satisfied with that, it fast-tracked the money in the first year by putting £104 million into child care facilities in the private sector and in the community sector. The Deputy obviously did not listen to my reply.
I listened carefully to it.
There was a sum of £10 million put aside—
Which has not been spent.
—in the allocation of the last budget. It is not up to me to spend it. We have to make application to the Department of Finance to apply for that money based on the needs of our Department—
The Minister has been in office for four years.
—therefore, £10 million has been provided by the Government. This Government and my Department are delivering the largest child benefit package—
That was not the subject of my question.
—in the history of this State, which is linked to child care.
If I wanted to know about child benefit, I would have asked about it.
Deputy Hayes please resume your seat till the Chair gives you the floor. The Minister is in possession.
A sum of £330 million has been provided this year and a similar amount will be provided next year. I would be delighted to be the Minister who would deliver on that.
Is it not ironic that the Minister who claims to be the Minister with responsibility for family affairs – God help us and protect us – is the Minister who has not provided one child care place in any of the offices over which he has direct control. Is that not a disgrace? Does it not underline the complete inability of the Government to create action from the words we get in these policy documents every six months or so? Can the Minister explain how many crèches, child care facilities or after school facilities he will directly provide as a result of the £10 million announced by the Minister for Finance in the budget? Will he confirm that he has made an application to the Minister for Finance as of 15 June and that there will be a number of facilities provided for his substantial Department, which has more than 200 offices throughout the country?
As I said in my original reply, we have applied to the Department of Finance and a number of crèche facilities have already been put in place, as I indicated.
Not by the Minister, though. They were there long before he came to office.
Staff in my office will be able to avail of those facilities. Before we can apply under the scheme set down by the Minister for Finance in budget 2000, which included £10 million for the provision of 15 crèches for civil servants, we had to survey our staff. That survey revealed a surprisingly low take up In many of our offices there are already play areas for children of customers who come to those offices.
