Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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403. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the size of the afterschool child care scheme is demand-led or if there is a cap on places; if the announcement on the 8 July 2014 of changes to the eligibility rules governing the scheme also involved an increase in the capacity of the scheme and, if so, the amount. [31549/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In recognition of the childcare requirements of jobseekers and lone parents as part of a package of measures in Budget 2013, the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and I announced the after-school child care (ASCC) scheme between our two Departments. The purpose of the ASCC scheme is to help offset some of the after-school child care costs that are associated with availing of a work opportunity in a bid to encourage more individuals to take up employment. The scheme provides 800 subsidised after-school child care places for children attending primary school and is open to both jobseekers and OFP recipients.

There are currently no plans to create additional capacity on the scheme given that take-up has been very low to date.

The eligibility criteria and subvention of the ASCC scheme have been revised and took effect from 14 July, 2014. The new changes include:

- reducing the scheme’s parental contribution to €15 per child per week;

- introducing an after-school pick-up service for the scheme at no charge to parents;

- opening the scheme to all employment programmes (except for community employment (CE), as CE participants will now be fully supported under the community employment childcare, or CEC, programme), to include children up to the age of 13 years;

- opening the scheme to customers of the Department who are leaving an employment programme, including CE, to take up employment, and

- allowing OFP recipients to avail of the scheme in the same manner as it is currently available to jobseekers.

The Department continues to engage with the community and voluntary sector to disseminate information on the ASCC scheme and to promote it as widely as possible.