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

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 23, to delete lines 5 to 8 and substitute the following:“Review of Scheme

25. The Minister shall, as soon as may be after the expiration of 12 months from the date of the making of the first payment of financial support to an approved childcare services provider under section 15, conduct a review of the operation of the Scheme and make a report in writing to each House of the Oireachtas of his or her findings and conclusions resulting from the review.”.

Amendment No. 15 provides for a review of the scheme 12 months after the first payment of financial support under the scheme. The amendment is intended to address the issue raised by Deputies Funchion and Mitchell on Committee Stage of the importance of assessing the operation of the scheme, in particular section 13, at an early stage to allow any necessary policy adjustment to be carried out promptly. The amendment previously proposed by the Deputies focused on section 13 and its associated regulations in recognition of the fact that the section provides for the scheme's rules on income thresholds, subsidy rates, maximum hours of subsidy and definitions of "work" and "study". While I agree with the Deputies that section 13 is of central importance, it cannot be reviewed in isolation from other sections. For example, section 13 provides for a maximum income threshold to be prescribed for receipt of income-related financial support. However, section 10 determines what is assessable income. As such, section 13 cannot be reviewed in isolation from section 10. Therefore, the amendment I propose requires a review of the whole scheme. For such a review to be meaningful, however, it is essential that the scheme would have been operational for a certain minimum duration to ensure that sufficient data are available to inform the review process. For that reason, amendment No. 15 stipulates that the review shall begin 12 months after financial support payments start. This will allow for data to be available which cover a full annual cycle of income assessments, subsidy warrants and financial support payments.

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