Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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1134. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to cases of childcare providers putting conditions on accessing ECCE for parents, forcing payment of other hours to avail of ECCE hours; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2651/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal, free, two year pre-school programme, which is available to all children within the eligible age range.

The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year, with the programme year running from September to June each year.

The Department fully funds the provision of ECCE services.  ECCE providers enter into funding agreements with the Department for the delivery of ECCE.  The ECCE Funding Agreement 2021/22 requires childcare providers to provide ECCE free of charge to parents.  The ECCE Funding Agreement forbids providers from charging for non-optional extras and from levying non-refundable booking deposits.

If an ECCE provider is putting conditions on ECCE access for eligible children, parents should contact their local County Childcare Committee (CCC) in the first instance, and the CCC will liaise with the service to resolve the issue.  In the case that the situation is not resolved by the CCC,  the ECCE providers compliance with the ECCE Funding Agreement will be reviewed.  Contact details for each CCC can be found on myccc.gov.ie.