Vol. 566 No. 1
661 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the community based playgroups that were approved grant assistance for staffing or capital purposes under the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-2006 with details of the grant approved on a county by county basis; and the number of persons refused grants in these categories for each county. [12091/03]
As the Deputy is aware, the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-2006 is providing almost €437 million of Exchequer and EU funding for the development of the child care services in Ireland. Grants are available to a range of sessional and full day-care services provided by both community based/not-for-profit groups and private child care providers. The sessional services include a range of facilities including play groups. Statistics currently available do not differentiate between play groups and other types of child care service. However, it is possible to differentiate between grants made available to community groups and to private child care providers.
To end April 2003, €150.7 million was allocated to more than 1,000 community based groups for the development of new or enhanced child care facilities or for the support of staffing costs in child care facilities which focus on services for disadvantaged families. The tables below detail, on a county by county basis, the numbers of approvals and rejected projects per county and the funding allocated to community based childcare facilities for staffing or capital purposes. The preparation of a detailed list of all community based projects which have received approval for capital or staffing funding will take some time and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.
Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme Approvals to Community Groups to end April 2003
(i) Border, Midlands and Western Region
|
County |
No. of applications approved per county |
No. of applications not recommended per county |
Total funding Approvedper county |
|
€ |
|||
|
Cavan |
35 |
0 |
3,162,144 |
|
Donegal |
49 |
14 |
4,596,140 |
|
Galway |
78 |
13 |
7,216,980 |
|
Laois |
23 |
1 |
3,275,382 |
|
Leitrim |
34 |
2 |
3,240,280 |
|
Longford |
17 |
0 |
2,555,471 |
|
Louth |
16 |
3 |
2,941,713 |
|
Mayo |
49 |
5 |
4,389,087 |
|
Monaghan |
31 |
6 |
5,088,357 |
|
Offaly |
14 |
0 |
1,241,942 |
|
Roscommon |
25 |
1 |
3,064,258 |
|
Sligo |
17 |
3 |
2,484,664 |
|
Westmeath |
27 |
1 |
2,735,961 |
|
Total |
415 |
49 |
45,992,379 |
|
County |
No. of applications approved per county |
No. of applications not recommended per county |
Total funding Approvedper county |
|
€ |
|||
|
Carlow |
16 |
0 |
2,517,065 |
|
Clare |
25 |
0 |
5,362,142 |
|
Cork |
127 |
18 |
15,283,140 |
|
Dublin |
232 |
49 |
39,428,665 |
|
Kerry |
60 |
4 |
9,657,300 |
|
Kildare |
10 |
4 |
2,227,454 |
|
Kilkenny |
22 |
0 |
3,016,604 |
|
Limerick |
39 |
9 |
6,215,322 |
|
Meath |
8 |
1 |
2,582,676 |
|
Tipperary |
35 |
4 |
5,804,604 |
|
Waterford |
19 |
8 |
3,472,630 |
|
Wexford |
40 |
3 |
7,170,225 |
|
Wicklow |
22 |
5 |
1,978,594 |
|
Total |
655 |
105 |
104,716,421 |
662 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason a playgroup in County Mayo was refused a staffing grant under the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-2006, in view of the fact that it is based in an area of severe disadvantage. [12092/03]
I would advise the Deputy that the group in question submitted a staffing grant application to the child care directorate in December 2001.
All applications are assessed initially against the programme criteria by the Area Development Management Limited and are examined by the programme appraisal committee, chaired by my Department, which makes a funding recommendation to me. Support towards staffing costs is only made available to community based projects which can show that they are addressing disadvantage and are assisting disadvantaged parents who are in employment, education or training.
On the basis of the information available to it in relation to this project, the programme appraisal committee did not recommend funding of this project, because it did not rate highly under the criteria in terms of tackling social disadvantage.
The group has lodged an appeal against my decision in April 2003, and ADM Limited is currently assessing any new or additional information in support of its application.
In the interim, it would be premature of me to comment further on this appeal.
Questions Nos. 663 and 664 answered with Question No. 615.
