Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his Department’s plans to expand the community child care subvention scheme to make community child care accessible to eligible participants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20403/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme which is provided through community not-for-profit childcare services. In excess of €40 million is provided annually by my Department to support the CCS programme and this enables the parents of some 25,000 children to avail of affordable childcare.

In the region of 900 community childcare services participate 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. The subvention is used by the services to reduce the weekly fees charged to disadvantaged or low income working families based on eligibility criteria.

Currently, there is no funding to allow for the entry of new community childcare services to the CCS programme. New applications can only be accepted if the new service is replacing an existing community childcare service that is leaving the programme. In addition, there are no plans to extend to the CCS programme to private childcare providers.

It is likely however, that these options will be considered by the Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment in Early Years and After-School Care and Education, which I established in February this year. This Inter-Departmental Group, which is tasked with setting out a range of options for current and future investment, will consider options to enhance affordability, options to increase the accessibility of provision and options to build the quality of provision and support the sustainability of the early years sector. The Group is expected to submit a series of recommendations to Government in June 2015.