Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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30. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his views on the report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which states that child care costs in Ireland are the highest in the European Union, at 35% of income spent here compared with 12% of income on average in the European Union; his views on the report's indication that 0.2% of Ireland's gross domestic product is invested in the child care sector and support services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35535/15]

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. 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 figure of 0.2 per cent of GDP quoted by the Deputy only represents my Department's spend on the free pre-school year provided under the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, amounting to €175 million. This figure does not include my Department's expenditure on the Community Childcare Subvention programme and the Training and Education Childcare Programmes, which amounts to an additional €70 million per year.

Further, the OECD, in drawing international comparisons on public expenditure on early years services, adjust for cross-national differences in the compulsory age of entry into primary school. Therefore, for countries where children enter school at age 5, such as Ireland, expenditure on early years services is adjusted by adding up the expenditure corresponding to children aged 5 who are enrolled in primary school. When Ireland's expenditure is adjusted in this way, the OECD reports that Ireland actually spends 0.5% of GDP on early years services compared to the OECD average of 0.8% of GDP.

In Budget 2016, I announced a further investment of €85 million, which will provide for a number of new initiatives in the area of early years and after-school childcare. This additional funding increases this Government spending on childcare by a 33%. When full year costs of these new initiatives are taken into account, Ireland's expenditure on early years services will increase by approximately 0.1% of GDP, taking Ireland closer to the average OECD investment.