The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has been criticised for having no clear plan for developing a national childcare programme by the European Social Fund (ESF), writes Padraig Yeates. The ESF described Government policy in this area as being "in a state of flux".
A report from the ESF also looked at more than 50 training and education programmes on which more than £860 million has been spent to improve access to the labour market for disadvantaged people. The report found that access to programmes had improved for women and that afterwards "similar proportions of men and women gain employment". However, a significantly higher proportion of women were subsequently categorised as unavailable for work.
The report states that women who found jobs as a result of attending ESF-funded training and education courses tended to earn about 20 per cent less than male participants.
Responding to the criticism over childcare policy, the assistant secretary at the Department of Justice, Ms Sylda Langford, said a number of important childcare initiatives had been put in place recently. Expenditure on pilot projects had increased from £800,000 in 1997 to £11 million, she said.