Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Significant investment is being allocated by the Government to support families, including one-parent families, with the costs of early learning and childcare. Under the ECCE scheme, all children are supported to access up to two years of preschool education without cost, and 95% of eligible children are availing of this programme. Moreover, the NCS is supporting thousands of families to offset their early learning and childcare costs. We undertook a review of the NCS, the results of which were published late last year. The review showed that for the families using it, 38% had more than half of their early learning and childcare costs covered by the scheme; 56% of families had more money to spend due to the scheme; and 28% families were working more because of the scheme, with 8% reporting that they would not be in work without it.

Single parents working part-time or not working were most likely to report they were using paid early learning and childcare or using more hours of early learning and childcare because of the NCS. Approximately half of one-parent families that responded did so. The greatest perceived impacts on work were reported by single parents, with almost two thirds of single parents working part-time and almost half of single parents working full-time, reporting that they were either working or working more because of the NCS. Single parents working full-time were most likely to report that the NCS had a positive impact on family finances. A quarter reported that they had more money to spend because of the scheme, while a further half reported that they had slightly more money to spend.

The review of the NCS was undertaken before the introduction of enhancements that I announced in last year's budget. I believe they will improve the situation further. I recognise, however, that the burden of early learning and childcare remains too high and that we need to do more to support all families, including one-parent families. In this context, I have signalled that I will be prioritising further investment in the NCS in budget 2023, with a focus on substantially improving affordability for families.

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