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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 29, 52 and 553 together.

The issue of sustainability in child care services is challenging and multifaceted. The rate of subvention funding provided by my Department’s child care schemes is at the core of this, but there are also other significant issues. These include the receipt of parental contributions; funding from Tusla and other sources for services related to child care; and the scope of care offered by providers, in particular in the community sector. The scope of care often goes beyond the core child care and early years care and education or school age child care funded by my Department. I am confident that the reduced parental co-payment that will be required as part of the September 2017 more affordable child care measures and the new affordable child care scheme will improve community providers’ sustainability.

My Department is in the process of commissioning an independent review of the cost of quality child care. This will be put to tender by mid-August and will be completed within a number of months. My officials have been scoping the work that will be involved and preparing terms of reference for the study. Issues to be examined in the independent review will include average unit costs for child care providers, both centre-based providers and home-based childminders; factors that result in different costs for different providers, including age of children, geography, such as rural versus urban, whether a service is a community service or private, and aspects of the quality of provision; comparison of unit costs in high quality services with average services; possible impact of future cost pressures, including potential wage increases; and analysis of the child care market, including the functioning of the child care market in disadvantaged areas.

I anticipate that the independent review will be a key input in informing future decisions on the funding of child care schemes, including both the ECCE free pre-school programme and the affordable child care scheme.

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