Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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508. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if the consultation on the new affordable child care scheme will include consideration of supports for alternative child care choices, including in respect of those parents raising children at home. [33831/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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On 28th October, I launched a public consultation on the new Affordable Childcare Scheme for Ireland. The consultation is focused on the details of the new scheme, as set out in the published policy paper, and is intended to inform the further refinement of the scheme in advance of its implementation in September 2017.

I am very much open to hearing views about supports for parents raising children at home, but I also want to ensure that the measures I announced recently are implemented with the needs of children and their parents to the fore. The Affordable Childcare Scheme responds to a specific need to increase the affordability, quality and supply of early years and school-age care and education services in Ireland. It also reflects a core recommendation of the 2015 Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment in Childcare in Ireland to replace the existing targeted childcare schemes, which are administratively complex and inadequate in terms of accessibility, with a single, streamlined and more user-friendly scheme.

It is important to recognise that the Affordable Childcare Scheme is only one element of a broader set of commitments and supports aimed at parents and children. The provision of improved services for centre-based care is very important, but I will not lose sight of the needs of children who do not attend them. In this regard, Better Outcomes Brighter Futures: The National Policy Framework for Children and Young Peoplecontains a commitment to produce Ireland’s first-ever National Early Years Strategy. The intention is to deliver a cross-cutting strategy which will take a joined-up, whole of Government approach to the issue of supporting children and their families during the early years (0-6 years). The drafting of the National Early Years Strategy is very advanced and I intend to host an Open Policy Debate on the strategy before the end of the year with a view to publication shortly thereafter.

I believe that we need to develop the quality, affordability and accessibility of centre-based care, and that achieving this does not affect the supports that we can offer parents who opt for other forms of care for their children.