Delays in the start up of a number of creche and other childcare support services have been put forward by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform as the reason why it underspent ¤19 million of its childcare budget last year.
The Department, which is responsible for funding child minding facilities for children of all ages, said yesterday expenditure on grants to individuals and community groups running or establishing day care facilities and services for pre-school and school going children out of school hours had been "somewhat slower than anticipated" in 2001.
A number of applications for funding had not been finalised because the projects for which they were intended had been delayed, a spokesman said. The money is channelled through the Department's Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme which was set up in 1999 to address the increased demand for childcare services resulting in particular from the increased participation of women in the workforce.
More than €100 million has been handed out in grants to date under the programme, mainly to assist with capital development costs, staffing and improvements to facilities in naíonraí, crèches, playgroups, childminding and after-school groups. The €19 million which wasn't spent last year contributed to the State's €650 million Exchequer surplus for 2001 announced on Thursday. While funding not spent in a given year can be lost to the project for which it was intended, a Department of Finance spokesman said it was unlikely in this instance that the unspent money would not be channelled into childcare again in 2002.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform stressed that the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme fund was advertised regularly and that the Department was "only too eager" to hand out money from the fund in the interests of better childcare.
He encouraged childcare providers to seek application forms for funding from the Department's childcare section which was given a budget of €436 million for the 2000 to 2006 period.