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

The early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme is a universal two-year preschool programme. Children within the eligible age range can access this programme for three hours per day, five days per week. The delivery of the ECCE programme aligns with the school year and operates over 38 weeks per year from September to June. All hours of early learning and childcare accessed outside of the ECCE programme hours, either within term or out of term, can be subsidised by the national childcare scheme, NCS, for a maximum of 45 hours per week. Right now, record numbers of families are being supported by the NCS to offset the cost of early learning and childcare. As of 5 June, a total of 122,256 children are benefiting from an NCS subsidy. That is a 90% increase in the number of kids benefiting from the NCS in one year. Moreover, following the budget announcement last year, from 2 January the minimum level of support under the NCS is now €1.40 per hour, which is up 90 cent from the 50 cent it was previously. This represents €3,276 off the annual cost of childcare per child where a family is availing of 45 hours of early learning and care per week. To ensure that the full effects of the ECCE programme and the NCS are felt by parents, the core funding scheme that has been in place since September 2022 to support providers has introduced fee management for the first time. One of the conditions of getting core funding is that services agree not to increase their fees from September 2021 levels. Some 95% of services across the country have signed up to this scheme and its conditions. As part of this year's budget and Estimates process, I will be working to cut costs further but I will also be working to achieve other aims in terms of expanding access to early learning and childcare.

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