Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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650. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the way in which the additional €9 million for the national childcare scheme will be spent; if he will provide a detailed explanation of the costings that underpin the extra funding allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50928/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The introduction of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) was a landmark moment for making high quality childcare more affordable and accessible to families in Ireland. The NCS provides financial support to help parents meet the cost of childcare and to support better outcomes for children.  Subsidies can be income assessed or universal.

Whereas up to now, the universal subsidy was only available to parents of children prior to them beginning the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) preschool programme (around age 3), the changes announced in Budget 2022 will extend eligibility for the universal subsidy to children of all ages up to 15.

The cost of the increase in eligibility for the universal subsidy in NCS to all children under the age of 15 was estimated using the ESRI’s SWITCH microsimulation model. This model provides estimates of policy changes, using data from the CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The model assumes no change in demand arising from the policy change. It also assumes that there will be full uptake of subsidies among those who are eligible, for the full number of hours of reported use.  Up to 40,000 children are predicted to benefit from this change.  The cost of the measure, to be introduced from Q3 is €5.4m for 2022.

The second change to NCS announced in Budget 2022 is the discontinuation of the practice of deducting hours spent in ECCE or school from the entitlement to NCS subsidised hours.

Currently, where both parents in a household are in work or study, eligible families can receive a subsidy for up to 45 hours (enhanced hours) per week and, for households where a parent is not in work or study they can receive up to 20 hours (standard hours) per week of subsidy.  Where a child is in pre-school, ECCE or school these hours are subtracted from their entitlement to NCS subsidised hours. With this change, parents can avail of all these hours regardless of time spent in school or ECCE.  

This measure will be costed at €4m in 2022. It is expected that this will reach approximately 3,000 children who are currently on standard hours, utilising an additional 16-17 hours on average as a result of this change.