John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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547. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the Government favours day care over other child care choices in its affordable childcare scheme; if she will consider financial supports that allows parents to choose the childcare that best suits them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30908/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Affordable Childcare Scheme (ACS) will be open equally to any Tusla-registered childcare provider, including both centre based providers and home based childminders. Facilitating parental choice of childcare provider is a key objective of the ACS, and the equal inclusion of childminders is therefore a central feature. For this reason it is incorrect to say that the ACS favours day care over other childcare choices.

I acknowledge that the number of Tusla-registered childminders is still small. However, I established a working group to make recommendations on how to support the development of childminding in the short, medium and long term, and I hope to build on that group's work in supporting a larger number of childminders to become registered and to participate in the ACS over the years ahead.

The Affordable Childcare Scheme provides financial supports for paid childcare rather than care by parents or relatives. However, the specific purpose of the ACS is to reduce the cost of childcare to parents, and it must be seen in the wider context of other policy measures that are aimed at supporting parents who choose to care for their children at home.

In this regard it should be noted that, according to the European Commission, childcare costs in Ireland are currently the highest in the EU for lone parents and the second highest for couples, and the European Commission has, for several years, been recommending action by the Irish Government to address the high cost of childcare, both to support labour market participation of parents and to help reduce child poverty.

Supports for parents who choose to care for their children at home include the Home Carer Tax Credit, which was increased in the last Budget, as well as provisions for maternity benefit, parental leave and the recently introduced paternity leave. It should be noted that the Programme for Government commits to extending paid leave for parents in the first year of a child's life, which will be a key financial support enabling parents to care for their children at home in the critical first year.