I met with the management of a local Community Creche yesterday regarding my comments that community childcare facilities would not lose income because of the introduction of the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme.

The purpose of this meeting was to clarify the objectives of the new scheme, and indeed the old Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, so that a more informed debate about the future of community childcare in the county can occur.

The purpose of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, which ends this year, and the new Community Childcare Subvention Scheme, which begins next year, is to provide access to low cost childcare for people who suffer economic disadvantage.

The previous scheme sought to do this by providing staffing grants to community facilities in RAPID and CLAR areas, based on the profile of disadvantage in that area. At the time of receipt of these grants, community facilities were informed that the grants were to be used to provide low cost childcare to families availing of income support.

The new scheme, which has a larger budget than the old scheme (€153m), distributes funds in a different way. Instead of providing a staffing grant on the basis of a general assessment, it provides a subsidy for individual families whose status in relation to income support can be established. This is based on a review of the existing scheme which recommended that a more focused approach to economic disadvantage and childcare was required in order for more people who are disadvantaged to benefit.

The difficulty that now arises for a number of facilities in County Leitrim is that the previous staffing grant was used to subvent all users of the facility, rather than just users of the facility who were in receipt of income support. This meant that many families who are not in receipt of income support were benefitting from a subvention that they were not entitled to and which was not available to other families in the county.

I, personally, am included in this group. I was paying a reduced rate of childcare at a community facility last year, based on the staffing grant that was awarded to that facility. I should not have benefited in this way, as I am not in receipt of income support.

Hence, it appears likely that some working parents, like myself, will have to pay more for childcare under the new scheme, but it is important to emphasize that increases will not arise from reduced funding or the fact that families on income support will have to pay less. Instead, any increases will arise because certain families were availing of a subvention to which they were not entitled, and to which they will no longer have access next year.

Overall, this is a progressive move, because the current arrangements are inequitable, both for working families and families in receipt of income support.

It is not fair that a working, well off parents in one area are availing of reduced childcare costs because they have a place in a community facility, while working, less well off parents in another area have to pay significantly higher costs because the only place available to them is in a private facility.

Similarly, it is not fair that working, well off parents are paying more or less the same childcare rates as disadvantaged parents, or that taxpayers are funding the childcare costs of well-off parents when those taxpayers funds have been collected to fund the childcare costs of disadvantaged parents.

The challenge that now exists is to transition community facilities to the new scheme without affecting the quality of childcare provided in community facilities. To this end, the Office for the Minister for Children has allowed existing facilities to continue to receive their staffing grant up until June 30th 2008. It is to be hoped that affected facilities will use this time to gradually reduce the availability of subsidies to working parents, so the long term impact is not as immediate.

It is also my hope that the Minister will allow for special consideration of any facility who staffing arrangements are affected by the new scheme.