Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide a breakdown of the current total spend on Early Childhood Care and Education. [25657/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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More than €260 million is invested annually by the Government in childcare sevices with the greater proportion of this funding going to support the childcare support programmes – the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme, and the Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) programmes, which are implemented by my Department. These programmes support the provision of childhood care and education for more than 100,000 children each year.

The funding is provided as follows:

Approximately €172 million annually to support the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme that provides a free pre-school year to almost 67,000 children each year.

In the region of €45 million to support the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme, which assists low income and disadvantaged families to access childcare services in community childcare facilities. More than 25,000 children each year benefit from the programme.

€17 million is made available each year to support the Childcare Education and Training Support (CETS) programme which provides childcare places to qualifying Solas or Education and Training Board (ETB) trainees or students for the duration of their courses.

The Community Employment Childcare programme has an annual budget of €6.5 million to provide for 2,000 childcare places for parents engaging in Community Employment programmes.

€1.6 million is made available each year to support the After-School Childcare (ASCC) programme that assists parents returning to employment with the cost of after-school childcare.

In the region of €13 million is provided each year to support the work of the City and County Childcare Committees and the National Voluntary Childcare Organisations who support the development of childcare services and offer a variety of support to childcare providers, parents and staff working in the childcare sector.

€7 million is being made available in 2015 under the Early Years Capital Programme 2015 with €5 million of this funding available for grants specifically for community/not-for-profit services. This funding will provide grants for significant upgrades of community childcare facilities and also for essential refurbishment and relocation to new premises.