Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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597. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide a breakdown of the estimated costs for one childminding development officer, including PRSI, travel, subsistence and overheads. [39020/22]

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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598. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated full year cost of 15 childminding development officers, including PRSI, travel, subsistence and overheads. [39021/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 597 and 598 together.

In 2019 the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth put in place a National Childminding Coordinator, who is located within the Department, along with 6 Childminding Development Officers, who are located within City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) around the country and who have a regional remit. As part of the implementation of Phase 1 of the National Action Plan for Childminding, Budget 2022 enabled the recruitment of an additional 6 Childminding Development Officer posts within the CCCs as well as a national CCC Childminding Lead whose work includes overseeing and coordinating the team of 12 Childminding Development Officers. As the Childminding Development Officers work on a regional basis in collaboration with the CCCs in each region, the team of Childminding Development Officers provides full national coverage.

In line with commitments in the National Action Plan for Childminding, the role of the Childminding Development Officers is to prepare the childminding sector for the move towards wider regulation and support, while also in the immediate term supporting childminders who are subject to the current regulations but are not yet registered with Tusla to meet Tusla registration requirements, thus enabling more childminders to take part in the National Childcare Scheme and other State supports.

The full-year cost of the 12 Childminding Development Officer posts that are now in place is €843,000 per annum, which includes costs for salaries, PRSI, travel and subsistence and overheads.

The Childminding Development Officers are employed by the City/County Childcare Committees, and the costs of each post vary between counties. On average, 78% of the costs of the posts are accounted for by salary and employment costs, 9% by travel and subsistence, and 13% by overheads. Assuming that the average cost of employing a single Childminding Development Officer, including all related employment costs as well as overheads, is approximately €70,000 per annum, the additional cost of employing 15 full-time Childminding Development Officers would be approximately €1 million per annum.