Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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311. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to improve the community child care subvention programme, particularly for children whose parents are in band A, have benefitted from the old scheme and face higher rate payments under the new scheme, which will result in some children being deprived of child care, with particular reference to attendance at homework and after-school services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14539/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I plan to replace existing targeted childcare schemes, including the Community Childcare Subvention, with a single Affordable Childcare Scheme that links the level of subsidy to a family’s income, with the largest subsidies going to those with the lowest incomes. The benefits of moving to an income basis for payments under the new scheme include:

- Clarity, with a move away from a complex array of eligibility criteria under the current programmes to a single, clear basis under the new scheme.

- Reduction of welfare traps and increased support for progression into employment and retention in employment.

- Equity, in ensuring that low-income families that are in employment or self-employed are not excluded from benefitting from subsidised childcare. (Under the current schemes, payment is largely based on receipt of social welfare payments, rather than income.)

The base income threshold of €22,700 in the new Affordable Childcare Scheme will guarantee that the maximum rate of subsidy is available to all families below the relative income poverty line, while ensuring that the taper rate between the base and maximum thresholds does not generate strong disincentive effects with regard to taking up or increasing employment. It will also ensure that the majority of current scheme beneficiaries will receive the maximum subsidy rate under the new scheme.

While the new scheme will target subsidies predominately based on income, it was considered whether other criteria such as a work/training requirement should also apply, i.e. whether the family needs childcare because both parents - or one parent in the case of a one-parent family - are working or in training.

Incorporating a work/training test into the eligibility criteria ties the scheme more clearly to its labour market participation objective, given parents’ need for childcare availability to match hours of work.

Given that both a child development objective and a labour market objective are relevant to this scheme, it was determined that there should be a balanced approach to eligibility: while parents will qualify for a subsidy because of their income level, participation in work/training will determine whether the subsidy is for enhanced hours of childcare (up to 40 hours per week) or standard hours of childcare (up to 15 hours per week). When parents are not in work or training, childcare will be subsidised on a standard hours basis.

This approach will mean that this scheme is open – albeit for standard hours rather than enhanced hours – to parents who stay at home to care for their children, or who are not taking part in work or training, but who choose to avail of up to 15 hours of childcare per week. This 15 hours is inclusive of time spent in school or the ECCE Programme each week; in the case of school-going children it is considered that the child development objectives are met through school attendance and, therefore, the standard 15 hours of subsidised childcare per week will be available only in holiday periods (i.e. non-term time).

Finally, under the existing Community Childcare Subvention programme, to be replaced by this new scheme, beneficiaries may qualify for full-time childcare subsidies even if they are not in work or training. During the transition to the new scheme, any current beneficiaries who face a reduction in their subsidy will enjoy a “saver” status whereby they will retain their existing benefits for a period of time following the introduction of the new scheme. However, thereafter they, and any similar new entrants to the scheme, who are not in work or training will qualify for the standard hours of childcare only.