Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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721. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of continuing the wage subsidy scheme for childcare workers at 85%. [18600/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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On 25 July, I announced a package of measures to support the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector as remaining services reopen in late August/early September.

Access to the Revenue Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) within the July Stimulus will bring total funding provided by Government to the sector between 24 August and 31 December to just under €300m.  A special exemption for early learning and childcare services to the turnover rule within EWSS will be included to recognise the need to retain capacity in the sector and support parents to access childcare places and get back to work.

I believe this package of measures will support services to operate in a sustainable manner. This funding was needed to cover the costs of operating with lower occupancy due to reduced parental demand, a feature I hope will change over time, and to cover extra, public health related costs.

The cost of this package to the end of the year is estimated at €87.4m EWSS and €211m for DCYA schemes and sustainability. This totals €298.4m. Services operating from 24 August to end 2020 with EWSS will have approximately 65% of payroll costs covered. The estimated cost of continuing this wage subsidy scheme to cover 85% of payroll costs on a strictly pro rata basis is approximately €114m. This assumes usual payroll costs continue to be incurred.  However, changes to usual staffing levels will be needed for this operating period in order to implement public health guidance.  Therefore estimated costs covering different percentage of staff costs can differ significantly due to different operating conditions and staffing requirements.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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722. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount spent on the wages top-up for childcare workers during Covid-19. [18601/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In order to support the sustainability of the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector my Department launched the Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (TWSCS). The TWSCS was layered on top of the Revenue TWSS and provided additional funding towards childcare staff wages to ensure that they could be retained by their employer. 

The TWSCS operated from 6 April 2020 for a period of 12 weeks. Over this period, €24.3m was allocated to childcare services to top up the wages of their staff. The wage top up was made available to 3,900 childcare services that signed up to and submitted applications for the TWSCS.

To ensure prompt payment in these challenging circumstances for employers, estimated payments were made initially, with reconciliations following to ensure accurate payments based on actual staff numbers. Pobal, on behalf of the Department, continues to administer and reconcile TWSCS applications and the final actual cost will be known shortly.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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723. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount spent on the one-off reopening grant for centre-based providers. [18602/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Reopening Funding Package (RSP) for July/August is an exceptional arrangement devised to support early learning and care and school aged childcare services in meeting the reopening guidelines after the COVID-19 closures.

As of 24 July there were 2,672 applications approved for the RSP with a total value of €9.6 million.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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724. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount spent to date on childminder reopening grants. [18603/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Childminding Re-opening Grant applications are being processed by the regional Childminding Development Officers who work in City/County Childcare Committees, and payments are being issued by their 6 respective host City/County Childcare Committees. The amount spent to date on the Childminding Re-opening Grant is €186,000as on 24 July 2020. There are currently an additional 41 applications in progress. The Childminding Re-opening Grant will remain open for applications until 28 August 2020.

The Childminding Re-opening Grant is available to support childminders who had to close as a direct result of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An individual once-off grant of €1,000 per childminder is available to assist with the additional costs of re-opening.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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725. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount allocated by county out of the €75 million grant to open early learning and childcare services. [18604/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy will be aware the recently announced €75 million funding package to support childcare services re-opening from June 29 contains four significant elements:

- A once-off reopening support payment for DCYA-funded providers opening between 29 June and early September.

- A once-off COVID-19 capital grant for DCYA-funded providers opening between 29 June and early September.

- Continued access for eligible providers to the Revenue-operated Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS)

- Resumption of DCYA funded early learning and care and school age funded programmes

The number of applications for both the Reopening Support Grant and the Covid-19 Capital grant including the value of the awards is outlined by county in the following table as at July 24. Also included in a separate table are payments made under my Departments' funded childcare schemes up to July 24 for services that have reopened since June 29.