Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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43. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she has had discussions with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs regarding parents who work shifts or are on zero or low hours contracts and potentially missing out on the affordable childcare scheme due to their variable work patterns. [38307/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, who has policy responsibility for the Affordable Childcare Scheme that the legislation underpinning the scheme is currently being drafted. The Heads of Bill and General Scheme, which were published in February, proposed that where an applicant and an applicant's partner are engaged in work or study, they will be eligible for up to 40 hours of subsidised childcare per week, for each child. The definition of "work" proposed in Head 12 is "any form of employment, self-employment, apprenticeship, or participation in a statutory of State-sponsored labour market activation programme that requires attendance or availability either every week on a frequent and regular basis, including short-term periods of leave from any such work (including, but not limited to, sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, adoptive leave and carer's leave), but excluding career breaks". I am further informed by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs that this definition, if applied, would include parents who work shifts or are on zero or low hours contracts, provided they either work - or are required to be available for work - on a frequent and regular basis and that the definition would not prevent parents benefitting from the affordable childcare subsidy simply because their work patterns are variable.