Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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410. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide a breakdown of the current funding streams for childcare and of the additional funding provided in Budget 2022 and expected funding required in 2023 to maintain existing levels of service in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38751/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In Budget 2022, I secured an additional €78m in funding for early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC), bringing the total investment in the sector to €716m in 2022. This will allow my Department to bring forward a substantial and comprehensive package of developments to achieve significant progress on its policy priorities of affordable, high quality, inclusive and sustainable ELC and SAC.

The €716 million investment in ELC and SAC includes an available allocation of €73m for a new core funding stream for providers from September 2022, equivalent to €221 million for a full year.

This funding stream marks the start of a multi-annual investment plan and is part of Government’s commitment to realising the First 5 target of investment of approximately €1 billion by 2028. The new core funding stream introduces a strategic new way of funding the sector and begins to implement the recommendations of the Expert Group to develop a new funding model.

A breakdown of the current funding streams is provided below:

Some €37m was earmarked for a once-off Transition Fund in 2022. This is currently supporting ELC and SAC services to ensure there are no increases in parental fees in the period leading up to the introduction of the new Core Funding stream, for which some €73m has been made available.

2023 will see a full year of Core Funding, which is expected to provide an additional €148m to ELC and SAC services.

2022 saw a gradual return to normal parental behaviours. As part of the ongoing 2023 Estimates process, officials within my department are currently examining the expected funding required in 2023 to maintain existing levels of service.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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411. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the additional funding required to reduce the costs of childcare for parents to €50 per week or €100 per month; if he will provide a breakdown of the additional allocations required in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38752/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is assumed the Deputy is referring to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) as the means through which the cost of childcare is to be reduced.

In Budget 2022, I announced an end to the practice of deducting hours spent in pre-school or school from the entitlement to NCS subsidised hours, benefiting an estimated 5,000 children from low income families since 2 May 2022. I also announced the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 from September 2022, benefiting up to 40,000 children. Full year estimates of these changes have been factored into the costs below but the impact of these changes will not be fully known until Q4 2022.

It is not feasible to consistently apply a subsidy to all families using the NCS which would result in the same flat payment for all families.

To model on closest equivalence the estimated costs below are based on the hourly rate of a full-time service at the average national full-time rate. The average hourly fee rate is applied across all model types. The costings above are based on the average fee rate per the sector profile 20/21, which is €186.84, which equates to €4.15 per hour for a 45 hour user. Therefore the below costings are meant to be indicative only and should be interpreted with caution as the fees can vary greatly depending on the age of the child, the location and the provider.

- Age -The average weekly fees for different types of provision vary depending on the age of the child. The level of fees decrease as the child gets older, both for full day and part-time provision. The highest fees charged are for babies up to 1 year (€192.06 for full day), while provision for children aged between 5 to 6 years is the lowest at €178.64 for full day.

- Location -The level of fees charged by services varies depending on their location. Differences are observed both between counties and also within counties depending on the level of affluence or disadvantage of the community in which the service is located. It is worth noting that averages can mask significant variations within counties. For example, the highest weekly full day fee charged by an individual service was in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (€324.35). However, the lowest weekly fee charged in the same local authority was €134. Historically, fees are higher in urban areas and along the East coast.

- Provider - As a general principle, services charge a fixed fee across which applies across a banded number of hours per day (a session). These models may, for example, follow the session types outlined in regulation. These are:

- Less than 3.5 hours

- 3.5 to 5 hours

- Greater than 5 hours

In practical terms, this means that any given service may have the same “full-time” fee whether, for example, a parent regularly uses 6 hours or 8 hours.

The NCS subsidies are calculated based on hours used, so, from the above example, the parent may pay a higher co-payment for using lesshours within those session bands by virtue of the lower subsidy available for lower hours.

The estimates are derived from current levels of usage and expenditure adjusted for the Budget 22 changes. These individual estimates are based on no behavioural change and should be interpreted with caution.

It should be noted that changes to subsidies may result in changes to patterns and levels of usage by families. These changes are likely to be more pronounced as the cost of childcare to parents reduces. The respective estimated costs are in addition to the existing costs associated with the provision of the NCS.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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412. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will confirm that if a child is in after school care and previously qualified for the national childcare scheme universal subsidy when in a creche that they will now qualify for additional support under the NCS in September; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38753/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy is aware, the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is a Scheme of financial support to help parents with the cost of their childcare.

The Scheme comprises two types of subsidies:

- A universal subsidyis currently payable for children between the ages of 24 weeks and 36 months (or until the child qualifies for the Early Childhood Care and Education programme if later) who are availing of childcare services from an approved childcare service provider. The universal subsidy is not means-tested and is available to all qualifying families of any income level.

- An income-related subsidyis payable for children from 24 weeks to 15 years of age who are availing of childcare services from an approved childcare service provider. The level of subsidy is determined by the family’s assessable income (i.e. gross income minus tax, PRSI and other deductibles and minus any applicable multiple child discount).

Significant investment is being made by my Department to address affordability for parents through the NCS. I announced a number of changes to the Scheme as part of last year's Budget 2022. These changes will be of significant benefit to many parents. Firstly, from 2 May, the NCS no longer deducts hours spent in pre-school, or school, from NCS awards. This means that parents may use their full awarded subsidised NCS hours.

Secondly, from September 2022, the upper age eligibility for the NCS Universal Award will change from 3 years to 15 years. This means that the minimum rate for an NCS Award will be raised to 50 cents for all children under 15.

These changes taken together mean that the parents of the child referred to in the question will be eligible for the NCS universal subsidy for after school care in September and, depending on their means, may be eligible for a universal subsidy.

Funding for the NCS will increase over the coming three years, to improve the affordability of childcare for parents. The amounts of NCS funding for each year will be set in the relevant Budgets.