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

I propose to Questions Nos. 34 , 46 and 58 together.

I am delighted to report positive progress in the development of the affordable childcare scheme and confirm our plans for the scheme to launch this October, with payments flowing from November. The launch of this scheme will, as indicated earlier, alter the landscape of childcare in Ireland. It will provide financial support for parents, establish a sustainable platform for investment in the childcare sector for decades to come and, crucially, allow us to continue to invest in giving our children the best start in life. Following on from the enactment of the Childcare Support Act last July, detailed secondary legislation and policy guidelines are now being finalised. Our information technology, IT, development contractor, Codec, is working with officials from the Department and Pobal to develop the scheme's supporting IT system to ensure that it will be available on schedule. The project is complex and challenging but a rigorous project management methodology and strong governance structures are in place to manage it.

In December, I signed regulations that will provide, for the first time, for the registration of school-age childcare services with Tusla, and these regulations will come into force on 18 February next. This means that school-age childcare services will be able to participate in the scheme from the beginning, which is a very significant change. An information campaign for parents and the public will commence in the near future. This will run alongside comprehensive training and information supports for childcare providers and other key stakeholders, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to be well prepared in advance of the scheme's launch.

From March, my Department will launch a comprehensive communications campaign that will advise parents and guardians how they can avail of the scheme and the levels of subsidy to which they could be entitled. That is important. This campaign will run concurrently with a campaign for childcare providers to answer their queries on the scheme and provide training to prepare them for operating the scheme in October.

Under measures included in budget 2019, I was pleased to have been able to further enhance the scheme by raising the upper and lower thresholds for income-related subsidies. These increases will poverty-proof the scheme for families on lower incomes, allow more families with higher incomes to access subsidies under the scheme and ensure that an even greater number of families overall will now benefit from the scheme once it is launched. Of course, there is a lot of work to do between now and October next to have the affordable childcare scheme up and running for parents. I will continue to work intensively with my Department and Pobal to have the scheme ready and functioning properly. It is an exciting development and will make a real difference to children, parents, families, society and our economy.

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