Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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511. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on whether the State should not adopt or support a preferential view with respect to the care of children in their early years, specifically on whether the State should not preference subsidising access to child care facilities while failing to support parents who choose to care for their children at home; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33452/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I am committed to the provision of childcare options for families that respect parental choice and reflect international evidence on how to attain the best outcomes for children. While operational responsibility for these do not fall within my policy remit as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I support the extension of parental leave for parents; particularly in the crucial first year. The Government has provided additional support for stay-at-home parents through the home carer tax credit, which has been increased to €1,100 per year. I support an increase in the earnings threshold for this, and have raised this with the Minister for Finance. 

My Department provides a number of childcare schemes available to all families, including the ECCE free pre-school year, which has been extended into a second year from this September - children’s eligibility for ECCE has increased from 38 weeks for all children, to an average of 61 weeks (ranging from 51 to 88 weeks depending on date of birth and age starting school). The Department projects that the expanded ECCE scheme will have a peak enrolment of 127,000 children in the April-June session in 2017. This is an increase of 60,000 children from the pre-expansion volume. Registrations for the September intake are on-going. Presently, the Department expects up to 89,000 children to take part in ECCE from September 2016. Over the last number of years, up to 96% of pre-school children have accessed the ECCE Programme, demonstrating both good supply and good take-up across the country. All children can benefit from the learning and socialisation provided through this scheme.

The proposals reflect a key recommendation of the 2015 Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment in Childcare in Ireland to replace the existing targeted schemes with a new single Affordable Childcare Scheme for Ireland. They also reflect commitments in the Programme for Government to “streamline the existing schemes to make them more accessible for both parents and providers”, to “continue to support subsidised childcare places for low income families”, and to provide “a robust model for subsidised high quality childcare for children aged 9-36 months”.

Some media comments have claimed the scheme discriminates against stay at home parents. However, this scheme responds specifically to the high cost of childcare in Ireland, which has been criticised by the European Commission and Irish families.