Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I have prioritised early years care and education. International evidence shows that early intervention can improve outcomes for children and families, particularly with regard to emotional, cognitive and social development. However, child care takes many forms, consisting not only of early years interventions but also of services such as after-school care for school-aged children. Child care is used by families in many different ways.

With the exception of a small number of nurseries subsidised by the HSE and preschools funded by the Department of Education and Skills, the State does not operate child care and play school services. Child care services are generally operated as either commercial or community not-for-profit concerns. Child care costs are dictated by the costs for service providers and by the market. According to a survey of child care providers carried out by Pobal in 2011, the average cost of a full-time child care place is €165 per week, with the cost of a place for a younger baby approximately €10 above that. However, prices vary across the country.

I appreciate the point the Deputy makes that child care costs continue to be a significant challenge and burden for many families.

I also appreciate that the child care costs for parents in this country are high relative to other countries. That has been commented upon in various reports in the past decade, including by the OECD. The Government does support a number of child care programmes through the provision of the three separate child care support programmes: the community childcare subvention, CCS, programme. I have seen examples all around the country of the support the programme gives to local families in the community: the childcare education and training support, CETS, scheme which helps where parents are involved in education and training, and the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme which funds the universal free preschool year. These programmes are administered by my Department.

We are lucky to have 94% of young children who are eligible benefitting from the universal free preschool year, which is available to all three to four year olds in the country. I commend the work of my predecessor in introducing the scheme when the early child care payment was abolished by the previous Government.

Additional Information not given on the floor of the House.

Protecting and, if possible, further developing the universal free preschool scheme has been a key priority for me and the Department. In last December’s budget I secured an additional €9.8 million in funding to maintain the universal free year which has seen an increase of approximately 3,000 in the number of children participating in the programme. In 2012, the total expenditure by my Department on the three child care programmes is expected to exceed €240 million. These programmes have been maintained despite the ongoing need to reduce Government expenditure and these schemes represent a significant investment in supporting parents with the cost of child care.

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