Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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259. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of persons that are in receipt of the universal subsidy under the national childcare scheme. [48791/22]

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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260. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of persons in receipt of the means tested subsidy under the national childcare scheme. [48792/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 259 and 260 together.

The Department has secured a landmark €1.025 billion in funding under Budget 2023 for early learning and childcare. This includes additional funding of €121m for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) which has been allocated to reduce average parental co-payments for early learning and childcare by 25%.

From 2 January 2023, all families accessing registered early learning and childcare will receive a minimum hourly NCS subsidy of €1.40. With the current minimum hourly NCS universal subsidy set at €0.50 per hour, this represents an additional €0.90 per hour off the cost of early learning and childcare.

In September 2022, there were 43,163 children in receipt of the income accessed subsidy and 23,640 in receipt of the universal subsidy under the National Childcare Scheme.