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Gnáthamharc

Child Care Services.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 February 2004

Wednesday, 18 February 2004

Ceisteanna (215)

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

284 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will give details of the operation of the equal opportunities child care programme; the total funding for this programme; the amount allocated to date; the cost of all funding applications which are outstanding; the reason for the review which is under way; when this review will be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5353/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Child care was identified as an investment priority under the National Development Plan 2000-06. An important aspect of the national development plan is the inclusion of two regional operational programmes. The common aim of these regional programmes is the achievement of more balanced regional development. In this context, the principle sources of funding for child care over the period of the national development plan are the two regional programmes.

The total amount of funding allocated to my Department for child care purposes over the seven year period of the national development plan is €437 million. Of this amount, €317 million comes under the regional operational programmes. At this stage of the programme, approximately €250 million has been committed in funding, of which €206 million has been allocated in capital and staffing grants to child care providers and community groups and €43 million to quality improvement.

When determining the level of funding which might be allocated to a particular group a number of factors are taken into consideration by my Department. The five principal factors taken into consideration are: the socio-economic and demographic profile of the area; the quality of the proposal; the capacity of the applicant to implement the project; the level of integration-co-ordination; and costings and value formoney.

The total value of the applications presently on hand in my Department is €217 million. This figure is unlikely to be the total value of the funding which will ultimately be allocated to these projects as the amount of funding requested by the applicants rarely matches the amount of funding which a project is allocated following the appraisal of the application. However, it is fair to say that a significant part of the remaining funding will be used to meet the ongoing costs of supporting child care services in disadvantaged areas.

During 2003 a mid-term evaluation of each of the regional operational programmes was carried out in partnership between the European Commission, the managing authorities and the implementing bodies as required under EU structural fund regulations. The purpose of these evaluations was to gauge the effectiveness of the programmes and to assess their impact in terms of meeting their core objectives. In general, the social inclusion and child care priorities of both regional programmes were thought to have been well designed and had impacted positively in deprived areas and on young people.

An important aim of the mid-term evaluation is to provide a suitable framework for making informed decisions about setting priorities for the second phase of the regional programmes and for making any adjustments, such as changes to the community support framework, which might have become necessary. This post-evaluation review, which involves all the parties concerned with funding, managing and implementing the regional programmes, will look at all aspects of the programmes but, in particular, the effectiveness, progress and continued relevance of the priorities and measures, including the child care measures, making up both programmes.

While both post-evaluation reviews are ongoing, it is expected that some new proposals will be brought to the spring monitoring committee meetings of the regions concerned. It is still too early to say how this process might impact on the equal opportunities child care programme. However, it is clear that there has been considerable demand from community based groups for capital assistance under the programme and every county has benefited from significant grant commitments to provide new and enhanced community based child care facilities.

In the context of the post-evaluation review and in the interests of effective management of the programme, my Department is currently carrying out an extensive review of the programme's capital commitments to date to ensure that those grant commitments previously entered into will in fact be realised by the groups on the ground. At the same time, it is also reviewing the different budget lines under the programme to ensure that the most effective use is made of all the remaining fundingin accordance with the objectives of the programme.

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