Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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291. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason for the delay from her Department regarding the issuing of transitional funding to support the impact to community child care services regarding the exclusion of community employment trainees, without level 5 qualification, from adult-child ratios; if her attention has been drawn to the impact this has on the sustainability of the community child care sector; and if her Department will be focusing on such issues when tackling potential sustainability challenges in the development of the single affordable childcare programme. [3353/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Following receipt of a status report in late December, my Department is currently finalising a package of support for services who have engaged with Childcare Committees Ireland and established through this process that their sustainability is impacted by the full implementation of the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016. This is the final stage of a process that has been ongoing since early 2016 focused on sustainability issues directly related to the impact of the childcare regulations, whereby Community Employment workers without FETAC Level 5 qualifications in childcare are no longer counted towards staff:child ratios in services.

Good-faith engagement of services with this project, including completion of all project documents, is an absolute requirement in order for funding to be considered, and my Department cannot assess incomplete applications, or applications for funding, falling outside these criteria.

The Affordable Childcare Scheme sets out to provide for a childcare subsidy to parents that will support an affordable childcare cost at different income thresholds. It is envisaged that the scheme will make a significant positive contribution towards the sustainability of many community childcare services, particularly because the proposed maximum subsidy under the scheme will be significantly greater than the current maximum subsidy under the Community Childcare Subvention. It is estimated that 77% of beneficiaries of current targeted schemes will receive the maximum subsidy rate under the new scheme.

Given the importance of financial sustainability for the provision of quality childcare, the Irish Programme for Government commits to conducting and publishing an independent review of the cost of providing quality childcare in Ireland. This commitment aligns closely with work on the design and development of the Affordable Childcare Scheme and is currently being progressed in that context.

Department officials are reviewing previous published research and analysis on the cost of childcare provision, are assessing available data sources and are scoping the precise requirements for the independent review. Issues that the review may consider include (1) the total average cost of quality childcare provision, (2) variation in cost and the reasons for same, (3) the link between cost and quality, (4) the cost of providing childcare services in disadvantaged communities and (5) the likely impact of future cost pressures, including the ongoing professionalisation of the sector.