Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

50. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will report on the affordable child care scheme; the current and projected funding; the take-up across the country; the level of subsidies being given; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43792/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am committed to ensuring that childcare is affordable, accessible and of a high quality. I continue to work with my officials to deliver the new Affordable Childcare Scheme (ACS). Strong progress is being made in this regard with all the elements of the scheme, including the IT system and an ACS Bill.

The increase in supports I have provided for the 2017/2018 programme year represents a major step towards accessible, affordable, quality childcare after decades of under-investment. Two supports were introduced last month. The first was a universal (non-means tested) support of up to €1,040 per year for children under 3. The second was an enhanced support of up to €7,500 per year targeted to assist low income families to return to work and training.

So far in 2017/2018 the number of registrations for these new measures is as follows:

- Targeted schemes (CCS, CCSP and TEC): 25,775 children

- The universal scheme: 25,339 children

It should be noted that for most of the programmes, providers can continue to register children throughout the year and children may enter the programmes at different times. Therefore, I expect to see the number of registrations increase further over the coming weeks and months.

86% of service providers have signed up to deliver these measures.

As the expanded schemes only commenced in their current form from Sept 2017, I am providing the estimated cost for September to December 2017 and also for the full fiscal year 2018. These are

- €32.9m for the targeted childcare schemes in 2017 and €75.2m in 2018

- €7.4m for the universal scheme in 2017 and €16.8 in 2018

This represents an investment of €40.3m from September to December 2017 and €92m for the full year 2018.

I would also note that 86,711 children have signed up so far to ECCE for this programme year. There are three cumulative registration cycles for ECCE and this intake is only the first cycle. In 2016/2017 over 120,000 children registered for ECCE.