Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she is taking to support stay-at-home parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37903/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Government is committed to supporting parents in caring for young children at home in a range of ways.

Within the remit of my Department, a number of schemes provide support to parents whether they work full time, part time, or look after their children at home.

For example, from this month, all children will be entitled to access two years of free pre-school through the Early Childhood Care and Education programme (ECCE) during the two years before they start primary school. Some 114,000 children are expected to benefit, many of whom will be children of stay-at-home parents.

Furthermore the current targeted childcare schemes are available to families where parents are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, medical cards, or GP Visit cards, again many of whom are stay-at-home parents.

A universal childcare subsidy is available to all parents of children under the age of three, or whenever the child becomes eligible for ECCE, regardless of whether parents are working or not. The Affordable Childcare Scheme, ACS, which is under development will make childcare subsidies available on the basis of family income and will be available to stay-at-home parents. This is underpinned by the Childcare Support Act 2018.

My Department also provides funding for local parent and toddler groups to organise activities for parents and young children in the community to support their development through play. Working parents and stay-at-home parents participate.

More widely across Government, there are various initiatives that support stay-at-home parents. A child benefit payment of €140 per child per month is available for all children. Budget 2018 increased the home carer tax credit to €1,200 per year.

There has also been a number of new measures to support parents to spend time at home with children in their early years. Two weeks of paternity leave and benefit for fathers was introduced in 2016. In 2017, there was an extension to maternity leave and benefit to mothers of babies born prematurely.

My Department is currently drafting a cross-Government early years strategy. The strategy will include a range of measures to support families given the fundamental importance they play in shaping children’s outcomes. I look forward to updating the House on those developments later this year.