Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. As members know, this is my first appearance before the committee and I would like to start by wishing the committee and its members well in their deliberations. I send my good wishes to and congratulate Deputy Jim Daly as he assumes the Chair. I wish him the best in his leadership role.

I am very happy to be here to discuss my Department's 2016 Revised Estimate. I remain fully committed to ensuring the full delivery of the programme for Government commitments in delivering real reform for child welfare and protection services; building affordable, high-quality and sustainable early years services for our citizens under the age of six; and enabling the full citizenship participation and engagement of our young people. I have high hopes for them.

The Revised Estimate for my Department in 2016 provides a gross funding provision of €1.138 billion, which is an increase of €98 million or 9% over the 2015 allocation of €1.04 billion. As Deputies are aware, there are two major elements to the additional resources in the Vote for 2016. They are an €85 million package of investment for child care and early years and substantially increased resources for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency so it can meet its obligations to children and be placed on a firm financial footing.

Affordability, accessibility and quality are at the heart of the €85 million child care and early years package. The measures provided for include an extension of free preschool provision by extending the age range for children accessing the scheme. The maximum number of weeks of free preschool education to which a child is entitled will increase. On average, it is estimated that children will be entitled to avail of 23 additional weeks of free preschool provision under this measure.

My understanding is that we have all advocated for this change. This extended free preschool provision will increase current investment in the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme, which stands at €1.724 million, by €47 million in 2016. These costs include full restoration of capitation payments to providers to pre-2012 levels from 2016. The child care package also provides supports to help children with disabilities to fully participate in preschool education under the ECCE programme. The supports will cost €15 million in 2016. Full-year costs from 2017 are estimated to be in the region of €33 million, so there will be an additional €18 million for 2017. The package also provides for extended child care subvention programme places and a move towards consolidating all targeted child care supports. A total of €16 million has been provided for these additional child care subvention places in 2016.

Turning to other areas of the Vote, the 2016 allocation to Tusla will be increased by some €38 million over last year's provision. This will bring the agency's current funding to €662.4 million and there will be a total capital provision of €13.5 million, which is being supplemented by a further €2.5 million carried forward from 2015. The increased provision for Tusla in 2016 strengthens its overall base funding position. That is why getting this extra money for 2016 is so strategic. It ensures that the agency has the capacity to respond to both unmet need and anticipated demand during 2016. An additional €1.1 million in current funding and €2.25 million in capital funding is provided for youth organisations. Additional funding of €1.6 million is also provided to the Irish Youth Justice Service in respect of the running costs for the new children's detention centre in Oberstown.

In conclusion, significant additional resources have been secured for 2016. It will allow us to build on the very strong and good work by all involved in working with children, families and all the extraordinary people in our communities, centres and crèches to deliver on this Government's commitment to fundamentally reform and increase the scale of the delivery of the services.