Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

346. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason qualified and experienced childcare providers that run their businesses from home are prohibited from registering with Tusla preventing them from accessing the national childcare scheme; his plans to change the rule; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30164/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Childcare providers who operate from their homes are required to register with Tusla and are thereby able to take part in the National Childcare Scheme if they care for four or more preschool children, or seven or more children of any age, from different families. The exemption from regulation - and therefore from the National Childcare Scheme - applies to those who care for smaller numbers of children, and is set down in Section 58L of the Child Care Act 1991.

Prior to February 2019, only childminders who cared for more than three preschool children of different families were subject to regulation and therefore required to register with Tusla (or, prior to the establishment of Tusla, notify the HSE). As from February 2019, when Section 22 of the Childcare Support Act 2018 came into force, the scope of regulation - and of subsidies - broadened also to include a provider who cares for more than six children of any age at one time.

On the basis of the 2018 report of the Childminding Working Group on Reforms and Supports for the Childminding Sector ('Pathway to a Quality Support and Assurance System for Childminding'), in 2019 my Department published a Draft Childminding Action Plan, for the purpose of public consultation. The Draft Action Plan set out short, medium, and long-term measures on a phased basis for childminders to formalise their position over the next decade. It included specific proposals to extend regulation over a period of years to all paid, non-relative childminders, and thereby to open access to the National Childcare Scheme for all home-based childcare providers. An extensive consultation process on the Draft Childminding Action Plan took place in the latter part of 2019.

The Programme for Government commits to publish a report by year end on options to accelerate access to subsidies for non-relative childminders. Officials in my Department are currently finalising the Childminding Action Plan, drawing on the findings of the recent public consultation. While there has long been a need for such a plan, the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme provides a valuable new incentive for childminders to register with Tusla, giving them - and the parents who choose to use childminders - an opportunity that has not previously existed to access subsidies.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

347. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding available to preschools for developing and maintaining premises; the funding opportunities that can be availed of; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30176/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department operates an annual capital funding programme, under which early learning and care and school-age childcare service providers are invited to apply for capital funding to enable them to carry out works to maintain and develop their premises. The purposes for which this funding can be used are determined on an annual basis by my Department

I will announce details of the 2021 capital programme in the coming months.

My Department funds 30 City and County Childcare Committees (CCC’s) across the country who offer support and assistance to childcare providers with all aspects of my Department's funding programmes.

The contact details for all CCCs can be found on