Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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785. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of hours of formal child care per week and the number of weeks per year a child will have to undertake for their parents to be eligible for the universal child care subsidy. [37498/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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From September 2017, a new Affordable Childcare scheme will be introduced which will provide financial support for parents towards the cost of childcare. The new scheme will provide a system from which both universal and targeted subsidies can be provided towards the cost of childcare. This new scheme will replace the existing targeted childcare programmes with a single, streamlined and more user-friendly scheme and is intended to provide "wraparound" care for pre-school and school-age children.

The universal element of the Scheme will be available to all families with children between the age of 6 months and 36 months (or until the child qualifies for the free pre-school programme if later than 36 months), who are attending a childcare provider who is registered with Tusla initially, including both centre-based childcare providers (e.g. crèches, preschools and daycare centres) and child-minders.

Under the scheme, there will be no requirement to avail of a minimum number of subsidised hours or weeks. Subject to the terms of the scheme, including the maximum subsidised hours per week, the universal subsidy will be payable for the number of hours and weeks agreed between the parent and childcare provider.