Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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508. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the position regarding the difficulty a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary is encountering with the back to work enterprise allowance programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1685/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme provides funding to community childcare not-for-profit services to enable them to provide childcare at reduced rates to disadvantaged and low income working parents.

There are in the region of 900 community childcare services participating in the CCS programme and they qualify for funding on the basis of the level of service they provide and the profile of the parents benefiting from their service. Support is provided to parents based on information gathered during a designated week in the month of October, and it is only parents who satisfy the qualifying criteria in this particular week who qualify for support under the programme. If a child leaves the service after qualifying for CCS support, they may be replaced by another eligible child. The only other children eligible for CCS support outside of this designated week are children aged 0-12 months.

There were more than 20 community childcare services providing the CCS programme in County Tipperary last year with 11 of these located in Tipperary North. The local County Childcare Committees will advise parents of the participating services in their area.

The annual investment in childcare supports is in the region of €260 million and this Department was successful in maintaining this funding despite the recent budgetary constraints. I appreciate the difficulties that parents are experiencing in accessing affordable and suitable childcare but the funding available to my Department does not allow me to expand or enhance the current support programmes.

A number of representations in relation to this matter were received in my office and replies recently issued outlining the position.