Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 October 2004
315 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for refusing child care funding to support the work of persons (details supplied) in County Wicklow; if these persons will receive the necessary funding they need in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26695/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware, the equal opportunities child care programme provides grant assistance towards the staffing costs of community not-for-profit based child care services which have a clear focus on disadvantage. The programme has an underlying economic prerogative in terms of promoting opportunities for parents to participate in education, training or employment. Such applications are assessed against five distinct criteria, as set out in the programmes guidelines, which are as follows: the socio-economic and demographic profile of the area; the general quality of the application; the capacity of the group to implement the project; the level of integration/co-ordination of the service; and the cost and value for money of the project.
With respect to the application referred to by the Deputy I have made inquiries of the child care directorate of my Department and I understand that the original application from this group was turned down in July 2003 because their application did not adequately satisfy all the criteria of the programme. The group subsequently appealed this decision and, in June 2004, were informed that their appeal had been unsuccessful.
The group was informed of the reasons why their application was turned down. Staffing grant assistance is only made available to community based not for profit groups which show a clear focus on disadvantage and which support the child care needs of parents who are in employment or who are preparing for labour market participation through education and training. This project failed to demonstrate a strong focus on disadvantage while the service catered for a very small core group of children and the short operating hours did not facilitate parents to access either education, training or employment. Accordingly the project did not comply with the terms of the programme and therefore was not eligible for funding which is linked to the aims of the European Social Funds as the key funding source for staffing grant assistance.
316 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications which have been received for the childminding in the home grant; the amount paid out annually since the scheme began; the number of applications which have been rejected; and if consideration has been given to changing the qualifying criteria or making it a start-up grant. [26696/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra323 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will consider allowing the 90% grant of cost of child care facilities in the home to be awarded up front and not retrospectively. [26728/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 316 and 323 together.
I assume the Deputies are referring to the childminder development grant that forms part of the national child minding initiative. I launched the national childminders initiative in November 2003 as part of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006. Funding of up to €2.89 million has been made available to the city and county child care committees for the implementation of the initiative during 2004. Funding for the 2005 implementation of the initiative is currently under review by my Department.
The initiative links a small development grant scheme for childminders to a quality awareness programme, QAP, which consists of a series of short lectures for child minders addressing quality issues. The development grant scheme provides grants of up €630, subject to a maximum of 90% of total expenditure, to childminders to cover quality and/or safety enhancement costs.
The initiative is implemented locally by the city and county child care committees. A review of the initiative by my Department in August 2004 revealed that by end June 2004, 325 childminders had received grant approval while over 900 childminders attended the QAP in its first six months of operation. At that time, an additional 117 grant applications were being processed with over 300 childminders scheduled to attend the QAP. Figures for applications that have been rejected are not available, but are thought to be negligible at this stage.
Given that this is a new initiative and that the city and county child care committees have only had a limited amount of time to implement this new initiative, particularly in setting up the quality awareness training element, I am very pleased with the initial response and believe that this initiative will serve as a very useful support for childminders. I expect that there will be a significant increase in the number of grants taken up as the initiative becomes widely recognised.
To obtain the development grant, childminders must provide an expenditure return detailing their eligible expenditure with original itemised receipts attached. This ensures that all successful applicants of the development grant are or will be engaged in child minding of children, other than their own children, on a commercial basis and be in receipt of payment for the services provided. In light of this, the development grant could be seen to be a start-up grant as well as a quality improvement grant.
In light of the above and given the relatively small amounts of money involved in each grant offer and the large number of potential grant recipients, which could exceed 3,000 in a single full year of operation, I have no plans to change the payment procedures of the child minder development grant scheme as proposed by the Deputies, as this would be administratively cumbersome and expensive to operate and monitor.
