Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 342: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason preschools and crèches are now being required to charge no more than a €92 voluntary top-up fee when such a charge has no implications for the Exchequer but is likely to result in crèche closures; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16571/11]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The free Preschool Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme was introduced in January 2010 and provides a free preschool year to all eligible children.

The standard capitation fee paid to childcare services participating in the ECCE programme is €2,450 per annum or €64.50 per week over 38 weeks, or €48.50 per week in the case of full day services open 50 weeks per annum. A higher capitation fee of €2,850 per annum or €75 per week is available to sessional playschool services with more highly qualified staff. Participating services may charge parents for additional services provided they are clearly optional and children not availing of such services continue to receive an appropriate programme based provision.

Services participating in the scheme are required to provide the preschool year provision to the parent free of charge. A full day-care service which operates for 50 weeks of the year must provide 2 hours 15 minutes per day free under the scheme but can charge parents for the additional hours availed of. A sessional playschool providing the preschool provision for 3 hours each day over 38 weeks can offer parents, on a strictly optional basis, an additional 30 minutes per day in return for an additional fee. Each participating service is required to provide a fee policy to its local City or County Childcare Committee (CCC) including details of fees charged in respect of non-qualified children and details in regard to optional additional fees. This information is required to ensure that services are compliant with the terms and conditions of the scheme.

It is a fundamental principle of the ECCE programme that the preschool year is provided free of charge to the parent whose child qualifies under the programme. Any additional services or time provided to ECCE qualifying children must be clearly optional and the overall cost of the child's attendance must not exceed the cost of providing the same service to a parent whose child does not qualify under the scheme. While the ECCE programme does not set maximum and minimum levels of fees for additional services, in some cases services have tried to vary their fees for qualified and non-qualified children, in order to reduce the economic benefit of the programme for parents, and to increase their benefits in respect of children qualified under the programme. For example, if the price of a daily 5 hour place is €120 per week and ECCE capitation amounts to €48.50, the price for an ECCE qualified child in such a place should not exceed €71.50.

In order to ensure the programme benefits parents as intended, the City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) verify the Fees Policies of participating services, to ensure that the full benefit of the capitation paid is reflected in the price of additional hours provided. I can confirm, however, that there is no €92 cap and many creches charge a higher top-up in the context of Full Daycare places, where the top-up would often exceed €100.