John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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722. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children who will benefit in September 2017 from the Government's new more affordable childcare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32951/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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On 11^thApril, I made an announcement that this September a range of measures will be introduced by my Department to make childcare more affordable for thousands of families throughout Ireland. These include:

- A new universal subsidy will be available for all children aged between 6 months and 3 years of age (or until they are eligible for ECCE e.g. 3 years 3 months) in registered childcare. This will amount to as much as €80 a month or €1,000 per year for children in full time childcare.

- Subsidies provided under existing childcare schemes, specifically the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) and Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) Schemes will be increased significantly, in some cases by as much as 50%

Given the considerable increase in subsidies, particularly through the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCS) taking effect from September 2017, it is difficult to provide accurate estimates around uptake of the schemes. However we would reasonably expect the total number of beneficiaries by scheme to be as per the following table:

This should decrease the co-payment required by families who qualify and therefore make childcare more accessible and affordable to these families.