Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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677. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will increase early childhood care and education payments, and promote quality and sustainability (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30561/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children, in the age range 3 years and 2 months to 4 years and 7 months, before they commence primary school. This Programme, which has an annual cost of over €170 million, benefits in the region of 67,000 children every year.

To deliver the free pre-school year, a standard capitation fee of €62.50 per week per eligible child is currently paid to participating early years services. A higher capitation fee of €73 per week is paid per eligible child to services with more highly qualified staff. This kind of funding mechanism provides the leverage to progressively build the quality of early years provision, while at the same time making childcare more affordable to parents and improving the sustainability of the sector.

Despite the downturn and the difficult budgetary situation, the Government did maintain the pre-school year on a universal and free basis and, importantly, the number of early years services participating in the Programme remained consistent. The funding provided under the ECCE Programme to these services was a guaranteed source of income at that time and ensured that early years services were able to continue to deliver services at a time when the demand for childcare had fallen considerably.

The recent Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment in Early Years and After-School Care and Education, which I established earlier this year, sets out a range of options for future investment to enhance affordability, increase the accessibility and improve the quality of early years services, including an increase to ECCE capitation payments to services. The options in this Report are being considered as part of the Estimates Process for 2016.