Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the Childcare Support Bill. The main purpose of the Bill is to provide a statutory basis for a new national scheme to provide financial support for children through universal and targeted subsidies. This scheme will also be called the affordable childcare scheme, ACS. The scheme will be open to all Tusla-registered child-care providers, including Tusla-registered childminders. The Bill, if enacted, will allow specified persons, public bodies and agencies, including the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners, to share relevant personal information on applicant families so the system can calculate a family's affordable childcare scheme subsidy.

By making child care more affordable, the scheme aims to support children's participation in quality child care, to support parents' participation in the labour market and through both these effects to reduce child poverty. The Irish child-care system is one of the most expensive in the world. Irish families pay far more out-of-pocket fees than the OECD average.

Child-care groups have highlighted low pay and unsustainable working patterns as barriers to recruitment in the sector. They also highlight the increasing demand placed on child-care workers to hold formal qualifications and claim that these are driving workers out of the sector.

The affordable childcare scheme will replace the community childcare subvention, CCS, programme and its various sub-programmes, including CCS plus, CCSRT, and CCS universal. It also replaces the childcare education and training support programme, CETS; the after-school childcare programme, ASCC; and the community employment childcare programme, CEC. The early childhood care and education scheme, ECCE, commonly known as the free preschool year, will continue.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs expects that the new affordable childcare scheme will be more accessible than the existing targeted schemes. The affordable childcare scheme will have a single set of criteria, based on parental net income. However, some families where the parent is not working or in training will face a reduction in the child-care subsidies under the proposed scheme. These families currently receive full-time subsidised child care but under the affordable childcare scheme will only be eligible for a maximum of 15 hours per week of child-care subsidies.

In addition the affordable childcare scheme deducts hours of participation in school or in early childhood care and education from the number of affordable childcare scheme hours available. These families will only be eligible for affordable childcare scheme subsidies outside school term times. Currently they may qualify for part-time child-care subsidies during the term times.

By streamlining the existing targeted schemes the Department of Children and Youth Affairs hopes to make them more accessible to parents and providers; provide a fair and consistent scheme of progressive financial support towards the cost of child care with the focus on low-income families, incorporating universal supports; and provide a robust and flexible platform for future investment in Irish child care.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs believes providing subsidies to child-care providers is preferable to providing tax credits to families. The regulatory impact analysis of the affordable childcare scheme states:

While acknowledging the simplicity of channelling funding through the tax system, the report highlighted the lack of progressivity in tax credit funding (with support focused on families in the tax net) and the lack of scope of such funding to leverage other objectives of State-supported childcare, particularly quality improvements.

The Bill, if enacted, will allow specified persons, public bodies and agencies to exchange personal information on the applicant family in order to assess eligibility and entitlement. It is envisaged that the Revenue Commissioners will provide income data to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection so the system can automatically calculate a family's affordable childcare scheme subsidy.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has stated that it expects demand for child care to increase as a result of the scheme, but there is uncertainty about the level of increase. The Department estimates the cost of the scheme as being between €127 million to €149 million in a full year, but states that this may rise to €165 million and to €193 million. However, as noted in the Department's policy paper on the affordable childcare scheme, the additional cost will be less than this figure when the cost of the targeted schemes currently in place is taken into account.

What effect will the Bill have on parents? Waiting lists for child care could increase if the sector does not have the capacity to deal with the increasing demand the new scheme is expected to create. Payments are made to the providers, but there is no guarantee that this will be passed on to the parents in the form of lower child-care fees. Some stakeholders believe that the requirement for formal qualifications in child care among child-care workers will lead to higher child-care costs for parents.

What effect will the Bill have on child-care workers and service providers? In order to participate in the affordable childcare scheme, child-care workers will need a qualification in child care. Some stakeholders claim that requirement for formal qualification, combined with low pay is causing recruitment difficulties and driving some child-care providers out of the sector.

We must look after our children and ensure the child care is up to scratch. We must also look after the workers. It is important that we get the right people who are properly qualified. We must make it affordable for parents. When parents leave their children they need to know they will be looked after well.

I disagree with my colleague, Deputy Mattie McGrath. I believe the Minister has come into the job very open-minded. She has done a fantastic job and she always listens. Anyone I have spoken to has nothing but praise for her. It is very important that we look after the future of our children.

I keep emphasising the cost. An earlier speaker said that for a single parent or families with low income it is important that we make it affordable. The Minister is taking the right route. When providers receive the money it is important that they try to reduce their fees which are very high currently.

Ireland is a good country to live in. It is great that the economy is nearly back to full employment. It is important to get people out of the house and into work. I wish the Minister the best; she has my full support.

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