Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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690. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount his Department currently spends on the provision of child care to school-going and preschool-going children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30659/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Funding of more than a quarter of a billion euro is invested annually by my Department in early years services with the greater proportion of this funding going to support three national 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. This funding, which is in addition to the direct support provided to all parents in the form of Child Benefit, supports more than 100,000 children each year. This high level of investment has been maintained despite the difficult budgetary situation that prevailed in recent years.

The funding provided by my Department on early years services in 2015 is allocated as follows:

- €172.4 million to support the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme that provides a free pre-school year to almost 67,000 children each year.

- €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 benefit from this programme each year.

- €17 million 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.

- €6.5 million to support the Community Employment Childcare programme, which provides 2,000 childcare places for parents engaging in Community Employment programmes.

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

- €13 million has been provided 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 has been made available 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.

Funding has also been provided to support quality development and upskilling of the early years sector and to administer the various programmes.