Parents may have to wait until the end of the year before receiving the first instalment of the new €1,000 childcare supplement announced in December's Budget, it has emerged, writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen announced in his Budget speech that the supplement would come into effect on April 1st this year for parents with children under the age of six and would be paid "from mid-2006".
However, technical and administrative issues in organising the payments mean it may not now be paid until either September or December this year, according to Government officials.
They insist, however, that all parents of qualifying children will receive outstanding payments by December 2006 at the latest.
Minister of State with responsibility for Children Brian Lenihan said work was ongoing to ensure payments would be available to parents as soon as possible, and he was hopeful it would be paid in September.
In a separate development, figures show publicity surrounding the announcement of the eligibility of EU migrant workers for the childcare supplement for non-resident children resulted in a dramatic surge in the number of queries from Irish citizens over the €1,000 payment.
Daily calls to the childcare directorate at the Office of the Minister for Children jumped from 20 to 200 during the two days following a disagreement between the Government and Fine Gael over the issue. However, fewer than 10 of these calls were from EU migrant workers.
The Citizens' Information phone service also said any increase in the number of calls to its services regarding the new subsidy was a result of inquiries from Irish people.
Calls to the service suggested that not all parents are planning to use the payment for childcare. Some wanted to know whether it would be available prior to the summer holidays.
Fine Gael said last week that an increase in the number of migrant workers claiming child benefit, plus the new childcare supplement, could cost €150 million.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, however, estimated the cost of giving the supplement to migrant workers would be about €1 million.
Mr Lenihan told The Irish Times that attempts to provoke disquiet over the payments to migrant workers were ill-advised and fears were without foundation.
Fine Gael, meanwhile, has stood by its estimate and rejected claims that its criticism was either "racist" or "xenophobic".
Yesterday the Department of Social and Family Affairs said it was still too early to determine whether there had been a significant increase in child benefit claims since last week's publicity.