Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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967. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the degree to which she remains satisfied regarding the availability of community child support services including the provision of support for after school activities through youth clubs and similar bodies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45357/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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My Department continues to invest significant resources in the childcare sector generally. Over the last four Budgets (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) investment in childcare has increased by nearly 117% which reflects the emphasis being placed on improving access to affordable, high quality services.

This investment includes funding of the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) and the After School Childcare (ASCC) schemes. CCS is a childcare programme targeted to support parents on a low income to avail of reduced childcare costs. ASCC is designed to support parents on eligible training courses, as well as certain categories of parents returning to work, by providing subsidised childcare places. Eligible children must be under 15 years of age to avail of these supports. In September 2017, I increased significantly the subsidy paid under CCS to make it more attractive for low income families.

When the Affordable Childcare Scheme is rolled out, school-age childcare services who are registered with Tusla will be able to avail of subsidies under the new scheme. As Tusla-registration will be a requirement, I will shortly be introducing regulations (under the Child Care Act 1991) to allow for the registration of school-age childcare providers.

There has been little change in the proportion of childcare provision that is community-based. According to the Pobal annual sector profile, which is carried out on my Department's behalf, in 2013 approximately 26% of childcare services were community services. The latest data indicates that the proportion in 2018 is approximately 24%.

The annual survey suggests that supply of childcare places currently broadly matches demand. My Department is committed to keeping capacity in the sector under review. Staff from City and County Childcare Committees are available across the country to assist parents who may have difficulty in meeting their childcare needs.

The Programme for a Partnership Government included a number of commitments to strengthen supports for school-age childcare. My Department chaired a group with the Department of Education and Skills to progress those commitments in a coherent way and to align relevant bodies of work under our respective areas of responsibility. The result of this work, the Action Plan for School Age Childcare, was published in 2017.

Since the Action Plan was published, much progress has been made. An expert working group on School Age Childcare has developed recommendations for my department on standards, which will be progressed in 2019. The Department of Education and Skills has published guidelines to assist school authorities on how their premises might be utilised for school-age childcare and other activities where it can be facilitated by the school patron/trustees.

My Department has also provided a programme of capital grants, uptake of which has been very high. In 2018 there were 45applications with a value of €761,282 approved for the creation of 807 new School Age places under the school-age capital grant scheme. Additionally, 54 Essential Maintenance and Repair projects have been funded in 2018 for Community School Age services to the value of  €250,763 under the capital programme.

While youth groups may choose to provide school-age childcare or other services, to date evidence of this is limited. Youth clubs funded by my Department under the Local Youth Club Grant Scheme must be volunteer-led. While some staff-led targeted youth services are co-located with pre-schools and/or after-schools, the youth funding is not in any way linked to the operation of these services.