Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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121. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the supports he is providing to childcare facilities to support them through the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39967/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has introduced a number of measures to support the early learning and care (ELC) and school age childcare (SAC) sector during the Covid period.

From the closure of ELC and SAC services on 12 March, the payments under the schemes funded by the then Department of Children and Youth Affairs were continued on an ex-gratiabasis.

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme(TWSCS) commenced on 15 April (with an effective date of 6 April) and ran in conjunction with the Revenue Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).

Under the TWSCS, in combination with the TWSS, ELC and SAC staff and managers received a weekly payment ranging from a minimum of €350 up to a maximum of €586. Service providers received an additional payment of 15% of their gross pay costs pre-COVID-19, to contribute to continuing overheads, such as rent, insurance and ICT. This included a minimum payment of €300 per service per week for smaller services. The overhead payment was available to owner managers who were not eligible for the TWSS but could only avail of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) operated by the Department of Social protection. The TWSCS aimed to:

- support the sustainability of ELC and SAC sector;

- ensure that parents did not have to pay a fee to retain their child’s place; and

- give ELC/SAC practitioners security and to enable retention of their staff in the sector.

On 10 June 2020, a major funding package (€75m) was announced to facilitate the reopening of ELC and SAC services during July and August, which included the following four significant elements:

- Once-off reopening support payment (RSP), for providers funded by my Department, opening between 29 June and late August;

- Once-off COVID-19 capital grant for providers funded by my Department, opening between 29 June and late August;

- Continued access for eligible providers to the Revenue-operated TWSS;

- Resumption of ELC and SAC programmes funded by my Department.

The supports currently in place for the ELC and SAC sector are the enhanced Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) and Covid-19 Sustainability Support Fund 2020. Early learning and care providers are exempt from the standard eligibility criteria of a 30% reduction in turnover which applies to all other sectors. The EWSS provides an average of 80% of service payroll costs, allowing services to operate sustainably in a context of lower occupancy and higher delivery costs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 Sustainability Support Fund 2020 is in addition to the all-of-Government July Stimulus package for ELC and SAC services. The purpose of this funding is to support the sustainability of ELC and SAC services whose viability is still negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic even though they have availed of the other July Stimulus supports such as the EWSS.