Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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230. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the independent review of the cost of providing quality child care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10760/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Independent Review of the Cost of Providing Quality Childcare is a critical input to the on-going reform of childcare in Ireland and is commitment in the Programme for Government.

This Review seeks to:

- Analyse the current costs of providing childcare in Ireland and factors that impact on those costs;

- Develop a model of the unit cost/costs of providing childcare that allows analysis of policy changes and variation in cost-drivers, including the potential impact of increased professionalisation; and

- Provide an objective, high level market analysis of the childcare sector in Ireland, including analysis of fee levels charged to parents.

The contract to undertake this Review was awarded to Crowe Horwath in September 2017. Since then, a literature review and preliminary stakeholder engagement has been completed. These initial steps are informing subsequent steps of the Review, including a survey of childcare providers and the development of a cost model and cost calculator.

The survey of childcare providers is currently being finalised and is due to be piloted in the coming week with a view to rolling out the national survey in early March.

This Review is expected to take approximately 10 months to complete with the final report expected in June 2018.