Seán Haughey
Ceist:1051 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the measures he is taking to reduce the costs of child care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21575/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 29 September 2004
Ceisteanna (870)
Freagraí scríofa
The Deputy will be aware that there have been significant developments in respect of the provision of supports for the development of child care over the last number of years. Child care was identified as a priority area for investment in the National Development Plan 2000-2006. As a result of this, the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-06, EOCP, was launched by my Department in April 2000 in order to support the development of a range of child care facilities to enable parents to remain in or return to employment, education and training.
The current EOCP runs for seven years and aims to maintain and increase the number of child care facilities and places, improve the quality of child care services and introduce a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of child care services in order to meet the diverse child care needs of parents in employment, education or training. The total funding allocated to my Department for these purposes during the seven-year programme amounts to €449.3 million for a diverse but strategically focused range of measures including capital grants, staffing supports for community facilities in disadvantaged areas and projects designed to improve the quality of child care.
The total funding committed under the equal opportunities child care programme 2000-06, in the period up to the end of July 2004, is over €264 million. Over 2,199 grants have been awarded to date to child care providers and community groups which will, when fully drawn down, lead to the creation of 29,722 new child care places and will also support over 27,567 existing places. Much of the unallocated funding is already earmarked for second phases of existing projects, particularly as a contribution to the staffing costs of community based child care facilities, which offer services to disadvantaged families.
In the year 2000 there were about 56,000 centre based child care places in Ireland. When all the EOCP funding is drawn down, I expect that we will have created nearly 30,000 additional places, benefiting every county. It is anticipated that the extra child care places created by the programme will lead to greater choice in child care nationwide.
The Deputy will also be aware that child benefit supports made available by my colleague, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, have been increased significantly in recent years to provide financial support to parents with regard to the care of their children.