Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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582. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if there is additional funding for a provider (details supplied) in circumstances; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48039/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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School Age Childcare (SAC) is hugely important to my Department and the registration and regulation of these services is a core priority for the upcoming year. In early 2019, DCYA will introduce initial SAC regulations which will enable the registration of SAC services, to be followed shortly thereafter by full regulations which will enable inspection. This move is designed to enable school aged children to avail of the Affordable Childcare Scheme (ACS) when it is launched in late 2019. A fundamental requirement for access to ACS will be registration with Tusla and for services to be subject to inspections. In Budget 2019, my Department secured additional funding for Tusla to recruit more inspectors to meet this increased demand. The recruitment process is ongoing and will see the staff in post in early 2019.

The Early Years and School Age Capital Programmes in 2018 were available to childcare providers looking to expand, repair, maintain or establish a new service. Applications for funding were open from February to March 2018, with the results of the process announced in June 2018. Strand 4 of the programmes was designed to assist new or existing services who were looking to provide additional school age childcare places and strand 5 covered building improvements and maintenance for school age childcare services. The maximum grant available under strand 4 in 2018 was €20,000 with a total of €750,000 awarded to 45 services. The maximum grant available under strand 5 in 2018 was €5,000 with a total of €250,000 awarded to 54 services. The design of 2019's Capital offering is currently on-going, and the details of this will be made available to providers as soon as possible.

Currently, there are no specific funding streams covering school age children with disabilities. However, following the end of the third programme year of the  Access and Inclusion Model (AIM, which operates in the ECCE / pre-school programme) in mid 2019, DCYA will carry out an evaluation of AIM, and in the light of the evaluation will consider possible extension of AIM to other age groups, such as school age children.

For any queries in relation to the various schemes run by the Department, the local City/County Childcare Committee is best placed to assist. They are funded by DCYA to provide assistance on all matters related to childcare provision in a given area.