The Committee on Procedures and Privileges is expected to determine what charges, if any, members of the Oireachtas would pay for use of the Leinster House creche facilities, the Minister of State responsible for the OPW, Mr Martin Cullen, said yesterday.
The combined creche and gym area will cost between €1 million to €1.5 million and will be used extensively by members of the Oireachtas - given the proposals for new extended Dáil and Seanad sessions and increased activity from the various House Committees. There would be accommodation for 22 infants and "pre-Montessori" children in the new creche.
The Oireachtas reforms would mean the Dáil would sit five days a week in plenary sessions. In effect, this meant August would be the only month the creche facilities would not be in use.
The working of the House Committees was another key consideration affecting the logistics of the creche. A great deal of the the Dáil's workload was currently being dealt with "in Committee", Mr Cullen told RTÉ's Today With Pat Kenny. More and more legislation was being taken "out of the Dáil" at the Second Stage and being dealt with by the various Committees.
This degree of activity more than justified the creche facility, which was not luxurious by any standards. His was the responsibility for providing the creche, not for fixing the cost that parents would have to pay, Mr Cullen emphasised. As such he could not say whether the perk would be treated as a benefit-in-kind for members of the Oireachtas, or whether they would be charged.