Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1075. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of extending the ECCE programme by one, two, three or four weeks, respectively accounting for potential increases in capitation rates of €5, €10, €15 and €20, respectively. [3970/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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€297m euro has been allocated to the Early Childhood Care and Education programme in 2020.

The Early Childhood Care and Education programme runs for 38 weeks each programme year. The standard capitation rate paid to providers is €69 per child, per week and the higher capitation rate is €80.25 per child, per week.

The below table displays the full year financial impact of extending the weeks available and increasing the capitation rates according to the specified increments, in line with current levels of programme uptake.

Table 1: Annual Cost of ECCE Programme Extension and Capitation Increase (€m)

As AIM (the Access and Inclusion Model for children with a disability) funding is intrinsically linked to ECCE capitations, any increase in rates or durations for the ECCE programme has an impact on associated AIM costs.

If an increase of 1 week in ECCE duration was required, there would be a corresponding 1 week increase in AIM Levels 1 & 7 costs.

If there was an increase in the ECCE capitation rate of €5, €10, €15 or €20, there would be a corresponding increase in AIM Level 7 costs as the AIM Level 7 costs.

In 2020, the AIM level 7 programme is budgeted for circa €26m and AIM level 1 programme will cost circa €5.4m based on current AIM level 1 and 7 projected applications.

The below captures the impact of the outlined increases to the estimated allocation for AIM Level 1 & 7 support costs in 2020 on an annual basis.

Table 2: Annual Cost of AIM costs Associated with Programme Extension and Capitation Increase (€m)

Tables 1 and 2 should be combined to provide the full cost of additional ECCE weeks and capitation levels for all children attending, including those with a disability.