£40m more for childcare aimed at private sector

Details of an additional £40 million for the provision of childcare will be announced by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, tomorrow.

This will bring the amount the Government has committed to addressing childcare needs to £290 million over the life of the National Development Plan up to 2006.

The Government met yesterday in Dublin with the four pillars of social partnership - the Community and Voluntary, Employers, Unions and Farming pillars - to discuss the childcare issue, following a commitment in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to resolve it. Among the items discussed was the best way to spend the additional £40 million.

In April, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, announced a £250 million strategy to develop childcare services. This money is aimed primarily at the not-for-profit community childcare facilities in disadvantaged areas, and the additional £40 million will be targeted at larger, privately run childcare facilities.

Up to now only self-employed childcare providers with fewer than 20 children could apply for a grant.

The latest £40 million is also part of the Government's anti-inflationary strategy, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Ms Mary Wallace, said.

"Childcare is another drain on the resources of working parents and this new money is a way to minimise that cost," she said.

"Up until now, Government has been looking at disadvantage and promoting equality in childcare. It is hoped one of the things we would establish is a clear and agreed route forward on child care in the private sector."

The Community and Voluntary Pillar put forward three key proposals at the meeting yesterday.

Ms Camille Loftus set these out as the introduction of a universal taxable parent's childcare payment, paid to the primary carer starting at £20 per week for under-fives and £10 for children aged 6 to 14 years; a scheme to support the childcare costs of low-income parents participating in education and training programmes and subsidised child care places for low-income families.

"In the current debate on inflation it is widely recognised that alleviating the costs of childcare for parents would be a significant step in ensuring the survival of the PPF," she said.

Speaking after the meeting, she described it as "useful".

"The thing that was welcome was the emphasis on the need for more flexibility in the provision of childcare - a recognition that a woman may be working or at home at different stages in her life and so have different needs at different times."

Ms Aileen O'Donoghue, assistant director of IBEC and representing the employers' pillar, said she expected to see some indication in coming weeks as to how Government plans to address the "demand" side of the childcare debate and how best to address the issue of making childcare more affordable.

There will be a further progress report on the Government's childcare strategy at the next plenary session of the PPF on July 27th.

Since Mr O'Donoghue's announcement of the £250 million childcare strategy, the Department has received about 3,600 requests for grant application forms.

It was envisaged in April that £14 million of the initial £250 million would be spent this year on setting up, renovating and upgrading childcare facilities as well as subsidising the salaries of child care workers.

Some 60 application forms have been returned completed. The Department is now in a position to make grants totalling £2 million, which will be announced tomorrow. Ms Wallace said the Department was "delighted" that money was "now beginning to pour" into childcare provision and called for more applicants to submit their forms.