Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 143: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of children currently living here whose parents are claiming the early child care supplement on their behalf; and the cost of same for each quarter since the scheme was introduced. [28085/07]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of children who do not currently reside here but whose parents are claiming the early child care supplement on their behalf; and the cost of same for each quarter since the scheme was introduced. [28086/07]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 143 and 144 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Office has responsibility for the Early Childcare Supplement (ECS), which is paid in respect of all children under the age of 6 who are qualified for Child Benefit. This payment is administered on behalf of my Office on an agency basis by the Department of Social & Family Affairs, which has provided me with the figures in the following tables. This payment and Child Benefit are the universal supports to all parents, which assist them with their child care costs.

It may be noted that at current levels, payments are made under EU Regulations in respect of 885 non-resident children, which costs €221,250 per quarter, and payments are made in respect of 411,947 children resident in the State which costs €106,308,358. This means that 0.2% of payments are in respect of non-resident children, and I am informed that nearly half of those children are resident in Northern Ireland. However there is a significant number of Child Benefit claims on hand which are subject to EU Regulations and, when these are processed, the cost of payments in respect of such children may give rise to a slight increase in the total figure for Child Benefit, depending on the outcome of those applications, with a similar proportion arising in respect of the ECS.

The tables contain the data regarding the numbers of resident and non-resident children and the cost per quarter since introduction of the ECS. It should be noted that the "Cost" is the total paid in that quarter and "children paid" refers to the number of children in payment at the end of each quarter and does not reflect those paid arrears during the quarter.