Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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477. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when parents can expect their childcare costs to reduce by the 25% in the national childcare scheme as per Budget 2023. [48360/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Budget 2023 introduces major reforms to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) from January 2023, which will substantially improve the affordability of early learning and childcare for families.

Additional funding of €121 million has been allocated to the NCS from January 2023 so all families accessing registered early learning and childcare will receive a minimum hourly NCS subsidy of €1.40 off the cost of early learning and childcare. With the current minimum hourly NCS subsidy set at €0.50 per hour, the represents an additional €0.90 per hour off the cost of early learning and childcare. This translates to up to €63.00 off families weekly bill for early learning and childcare per child. With up to €22.50 currently available per week, this represents up to an additional €40.50 off weekly costs.

From 2nd of January 2023, any family who is not already at the maximum hourly subsidy under NCS (see Table) will see an increase in their subsidy. For those who receive a subsidy based on an income assessed subsidy, the amount of the increase will taper down as they approach the maximum hourly subsidy rate. The amount of increase individual families will see in their per hour subsidy, will differ widely depending on their current subsidy.

Table 1: Maximum Income Assessed Subsidy

With a fee freeze on 2021 rates in place in more than 90% of services who signed up to the new Core Funding Scheme – there is confidence that these NCS increases won’t be absorbed into fee increases and will deliver real reductions for families using these services.