Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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348. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 90 and 976 of 15 June 2021, the breakdown of the figure referred to of the €7.2 million weekly cost of the enhanced employment wage subsidy scheme rate for childcare, of employment wage subsidy scheme, pay and non-employment wage subsidy scheme pay from the start of the scheme on 1 September 2020 to end of Q3, 2021; and the allocation and amount drawn down for this period. [33967/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support for eligible businesses in respect of eligible employees under the auspices of the Department of Finance and administered by Revenue. As set out in Revenue guidance, the scheme has two elements as follows:

- It provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of paid and eligible employees on the employer’s payroll; and

- It charges a reduced rate of employer PRSI of 0.5% on wages paid which are eligible for the subsidy payment.

To qualify for the EWSS, as well as having tax clearance, employers must be able to show that their business experienced a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders over a defined period. However, Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (ELC/SAC) Employers registered in accordance with Section 58C of the Child Care Act 1991 are included in the EWSS with no turnover test.

For planning purposes, my Department has undertaken some estimates of the scale of this support for the ELC/SAC sector.  The figures provided below are based on data from a number of sources and underpinned by a series of assumptions so should be interpreted with caution and considered as indicative only.  It is also important to note that they refer only to potential allocation, not drawdown.

When introduced in September 2021, the standard EWSS rates applied (as set out in the table below). Based on these figures and estimates about wages in the sector, the weekly cost of EWSS for the ELC/SAC sector was estimated to be €4.8m.

With these rates, ELC/SAC services were estimated to have approximately 60% of payroll costs covered. This equated to approximately 38% of the usual operating costs of these services – allowing services to operate sustainably in a context of lower occupancy and higher delivery costs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rate of subsidy employers receive per paid eligible employee under EWSS was revised on 20 October (as set out in the table below). As announced by the Minister for Finance on 1^stJune, these revised rates remain in place until end September 2021.

Work undertaken by my Department indicates that, further to the introduction of the revised rates, ELC/SAC services with EWSS are estimated to have approximately 80% of payroll costs covered. This equates to approximately 50% of the usual operating costs of these services.

This estimated cost of EWSS for ELC/SAC, at standard and enhanced rates, was derived by my Department using data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile gathered by Pobal which includes data on gross weekly pay of individual staff working in the sector.  This was used to infer the individual EWSS subsidy rates that would apply in respect of staff across the sector. These individual EWSS subsidy rates were summed to arrive at the total weekly cost of EWSS to the sector.

There are approximately 56 weeks between 1 September 2020 and 30 September 2021. Of these 56 weeks, the EWSS operated at standard rates for 7 weeks and will operate at enhanced rates for 49 weeks. Assuming an estimated weekly EWSS cost of €4.8m at standard rates and €7.4 million at enhanced rates, the total cost of the EWSS over this period may be estimated to be approximately €430m. This estimate assumes all ELC/SAC employers continue to avail of EWSS in July and August. However, ordinarily, just 40% of ELC/SAC providers operate during these months.

It is not possible to breakdown these estimates in the manner requested by the Deputy. 

It is important to note that the estimates provided above relate to allocations for EWSS and not draw down.  The actual spend on EWSS is a matter for Revenue.