Written answers

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Child Care Services Funding

Photo of Michael Healy-RaeMichael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1295. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on a matter (details supplied) regarding early years education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12842/17]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Department of Children and Youth Affairs believes that staff in the childcare sector have a critical role to play in delivering high quality childcare services and that they deserve to be valued and respected for the important role they play with our children. Because childcare costs to parents in Ireland are one of the highest in the OECD, there is a need to address affordability and quality at the same time.

The Programme for Government commits to carrying out an independent review of the cost of providing quality childcare. This commitment aligns closely with work on the design and development of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme which is due to be introduced later this year, and the Department is progressing this work in that context. The review will feed into future policy development, including in relation to levels of payments to services.

The last two budgets delivered a 35% increase each year in funding for childcare. However, it is recognised that there is a need to continue to invest and a strong case will be put forward for more resources in 2018. To go some way towards addressing cost pressures faced by providers in the sector, €10m has been secured to enable providers to be paid for non-contact time, where they will have no children present and they will be able to pay staff to concentrate on administrative workload. Services themselves can decide how to use the payment when it is received.

While my Department is not an employer of childcare workers it is a significant funder of childcare services and very conscious that there is an issue with regard to the pay and conditions of workers in the sector. My Department is engaging with the early years sector, including through the National Collaborative Forum for the Early Years Care and Education Sector (The Early Years Forum) to explore how this can be addressed in the short, medium and long term. The Early Years Forum has been established to allow issues of relevance, such as these, to be discussed with key stakeholders. The Forum has enabled consultation and engagement between myself as Minister, key Department of Children and Youth Affairs officials, and key representatives of the sector. I have chaired the first two meetings of the Early Years Forum which has deepened my understanding of the issues facing the Early Years Sector and allowed me to share my vision of the sector moving forward.

Photo of James LawlessJames Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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1296. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will review the single affordable child care scheme with a view to allowing a subsidy for those in part-time care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12879/17]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Affordable Childcare Scheme will provide childcare subsidies for both full-time and part-time childcare, including after-school childcare. While the number of hours of childcare subsidised per week will be capped at a maximum of 40 (or 15 for families in which a parent is neither engaged in work nor in study), it is not intended that there will be any minimum number of hours of childcare for participation in the scheme. Parents availing of subsidies under the scheme – whether for part-time or for full-time childcare – will be subsidised on the basis of the number of hours of childcare per week, with the subsidy per hour determined by the age of the child and the family income. Maximum subsidy-rates, for families with the lowest incomes, will range from €3.76 per hour for school-age childcare to €5.11 per hour for children between 6 and 12 months. Recognising the importance of flexibility to families, arrangements in terms of the numbers of hours per day or days per week of childcare that is used will be a matter for parents to decide, depending on the childcare options available to them locally.

The Affordable Childcare Scheme will provide a system from which both universal and targeted subsidies can be provided towards the cost of childcare.

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). The targeted element of the scheme will involve a progressive system of income-related subsidies for parents with children between 6 months and 15 years, with eligibility based on net parental income. A family may receive either the universal or the targeted subsidy per eligible child, not both. The subsidy provided will be whichever of the universal and targeted payment is most favourable to a family.

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