Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her estimate of the saving in a full year in respect of the proposal to reduce the qualifying age for early child care supplement from January 2009; and her estimate of the number of families in 2009 and in 2010 affected by this proposal. [43176/08]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Early Childcare Supplement (ECS) was introduced with effect from 1st April 2006. The purpose of the payment is to support parents with the higher costs associated with caring for pre-school children. Currently ECS is paid in respect of all children eligible for Child Benefit who are under the age of 6 years. The rationale for this is that 6 years is the age at which school attendance becomes compulsory (except for those given licence to home school). Under Budget 2009, it was announced that the age-limit for eligibility for the payment is being reduced from 6 years to 51⁄2 years, with effect from January 2009.

This change is being introduced having regard to the fact that the payment was introduced as an additional, targeted measure to support parents caring for young children in their pre-school years. In general, children start primary school at the age of between 4 and 5 years, and their parents will continue to receive the ECS payment for them during this period. As virtually all children aged more than 51⁄2 years are school-going, this measure is not expected to impact significantly on parents. It is estimated that the reduction in the period of eligibility will result in savings of some €35m in a full year.

Based on the number of children in respect of whom ECS is currently being paid, it is estimated that approximately 70,000 children will be affected by the change in 2009, and a similar number in 2010. The number of families affected will be somewhat smaller, as some families would have more than 1 child affected by the change.