Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1160. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount Department has made available to child care providers for non-contact time since 2011, broken down by year. [34185/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The funding provided by the Department has always been intended to be sufficient to cater for all of the costs associated with the childcare schemes funded, including administrative and "Non-contact" work, or to fund this pro-rata where the Department's contribution is a part of the total cost of care provided. As such, it is not possible to provide a breakdown of funding paid in respect of "non-contact time" prior to 2017.

Notwithstanding the preceding, to take account of the additional administrative burden on childcare providers as the result of significant changes to the childcare schemes in 2016-17, including the expansion of the ECCE scheme to include three intake points, contractual changes and the coming into force of the Childcare Regulations, I provided some €14.5m in 2017 to be drawn down as a "non-contact time" payment for providers, equivalent to seven days' funding. I am also proposing an additional once-off payment of up to €3.5m in December in respect of the More Affordable Childcare measures being implemented by providers from this September .