Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 December 2004
8 Mr. Murphy asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that crèches built through funding from his Department have closed and that many more will close due to a lack of funding for day-to-day expenditure. [32412/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 is intended to increase the availability and quality of child care across the country. The Exchequer and the European Union Structural Funds fund the programme as part of the regional operational programmes of the national development plan. Initially €317 million of Exchequer and EU Structural Funds was made available to the programme over the life of the national development plan. The Government increased this to more than €436 million through an additional package of Exchequer funding and through interdepartmental transfers. In recognition of the many achievements of the programme up to December 2003, its funding was recently increased to €449.3 million following transfers of EU and Exchequer funding, based on recommendations made in the mid-term evaluations of the national development plan and its constituent operational programmes.
The Government's commitment to the development of the child care sector has been reaffirmed by the Minister for Finance in last week's budget. The multi-annual capital envelopes announced that day include the injection of a further €90 million in capital funding into the programme over the five years from 2005 to 2009. This will mean an increase of €50 million in the availability of capital under the first phase of the programme, bringing the total funding for the programme to €499.3 million while the remaining tranche of additional capital funding will be spent under the next phase.
The total funding committed under the programme up to the end of November 2004 is more than €266.8 million. Over 2,280 grants have been awarded to child care providers and community groups which will, when fully drawn down, lead to the creation of 31,973 new child care places and support 28,442 existing places.
Since the inception of the programme, every county has benefited significantly from grants to provide new and enhanced community-based child care facilities and to support capital developments in the private child care sector. Over 750 projects which have a strong focus on disadvantage have received staffing grant assistance. The programme makes staffing grant assistance available for a period of years, usually three years, to enable them to move towards self-sustainability which would normally be achieved when the service is operating at capacity and has introduced an fair and equitable fee structure.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
In a number of services, the levels of disadvantage among parents are such that the families would be unable to pay economic fees and therefore a limited number of services are likely to require ongoing State support towards their staffing costs. My Department is reviewing the arrangements for the ongoing support of such services in very disadvantaged areas and plans to introduce new arrangements to support those very disadvantaged services which have already received three or more years of grant assistance, with effect from 1 September 2005.
The Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 is making significant amounts of public funding, including EU funding, available to child care groups. It is essential that the financial management of such funding meets the highest standards and as a result it has been necessary to put rigorous procedures in place to oversee this function. This can result in the decommitment of funding grants and the recoupment of grants in extreme cases.
I am not aware of any significant closure of services as referred to by the Deputy. Each grant beneficiary has signed a contract with ADM Limited on behalf of my Department to maintain a service for a specific period of years, which varies with the size of the grant received. Again, a breach of this contract can lead to the recoupment of funding.
I do not dispute that a substantial sum is being made available for capital programmes. The problem is that when the facility is made available, the voluntary groups that are trying to run it find it difficult. In small towns and villages sums of up to €100,000 must be raised each year to top up the grants given by the Department. The staffing grants are totally inadequate and the entire programme is collapsing as a result. There is no point having fine buildings if the crèche facilities do not open and do not work on a guaranteed permanent basis. Will the Minister of State review the entire process because the current system is not working?
Large centres are not getting crèches because community groups are not willing to take on the amount of voluntary work involved. There are large towns with no planned crèches and small villages with substantial crèche facilities because community and voluntary groups work harder in those villages. A review of the entire process is necessary. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is in breach of many European directives because one of the ways to encourage people back to work is to ensure there are proper crèche facilities in all communities.
To assist disadvantaged families, the equal opportunities child care programme makes staffing grant assistance available to community-based not for profit child care services for a period of years, usually three years, to enable them to move towards self-sustainability. This can normally be achieved when the service is operating at capacity and with a fair and equitable fee structure. The Department is reviewing the arrangements for the ongoing support of such services in very disadvantaged areas and plans to introduce new arrangements to support very disadvantages areas which have received three years or more of staffing grant assistance with effect from 1 September 2005. All groups that have received three or more years of staffing grant assistance or which will have received three or more years of staffing grant assistance before 31 August 2005 will receive their current level of staffing grant assistance until 31 August 2005 when the new arrangements to benefit the most disadvantaged services will be introduced.
The Deputy referred to closures but from the perusal of files by ADM Limited, it is not aware of any group funded by the programme in Cork that is possibly closing or has closed other than that in Millstreet.
I welcome the review because the current system is not working. Millstreet closed its doors even though the very active community there raised an enormous amount of money to keep it going. When will the review take place? When will it finish? When will extra funding be provided for current spending in these crèches?
Will the Minister of State look at the situation in Ballydehob as well?
The Deputy is not entitled to intervene on Priority Questions and the Minister of State is out of order if he answers.
We have committed to ADM Limited responsibility for making detailed decisions on the administration of this matter but the Department is carrying out a separate review of the overall arrangements and plans to introduce new arrangements with effect from 1 September 2005.
The Minister of State must not forget Ballydehob.
