Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1085. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her policy plans to bring the ECCE scheme under the remit of the national childcare scheme. [3980/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) opened to online applications on the 20th November. Paper based applications are also now available. The Scheme provides the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare. It is an innovative, user-friendly scheme to help parents meet the cost of quality childcare. The development of the Scheme is a significant move forward in delivering quality, accessible, affordable childcare to families throughout Ireland.

The NCS streamlined historical childcare subsidy schemes (CCS and TEC), wrapping them around the ECCE scheme.

In developing the NCS IT system, DCYA also developed a new IT platform to support the NCS, and, over time, all other schemes and initiatives relayed to childcare, in a structured and coordinated manner. The transition of various existing schemes and initiatives onto this new IT platform is ongoing, with ECCE currently planned to migrate in 2020, subject to successful development and testing in the coming months

The First Five Implementation Plan 2019-2021 commits that DCYA will undertake a review of the ECCE programme and, subject to findings, consider the need to make changes. Over the lifetime of the First Five strategy, it also commits to the introduction of a universal legal entitlement to pre-school.

The precise mechanism for delivering on this legal entitlement remains to be decided, however integration with the National Childcare Scheme under the Childcare Support Act 2018 is a clear option in this regard.