Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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973. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has plans to help support parents, especially single-parent households, with the significant deposits required in order to enrol children in playschools and day care services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1023/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Supporting parents in bringing the cost of Early Learning & Care and School-Aged Childcare is a core ambition of the Government and of mine as Minister. To that end, the Deputy will be aware that, owing to the significant investment made available by the Government for providers over two successive Budgets, from this month the cost of childcare has fallen for thousands of parents participating in the National Childcare Scheme. It is my aim to reduce this cost further.

With regard to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP) Saver programme, my Department allows for the collection of deposits by early learning and care providers however these deposits are subject to certain conditions.

For ECCE, a provider may only charge a refundable booking deposit to hold an ECCE place for a child. The maximum deposit a provider may charge is equivalent to four weeks ECCE payment, however, the deposit must be returned to the parent/guardian once the child’s ECCE registration is approved.

For CCSP, the maximum deposit a provider may charge is equivalent to two weeks’ payment. The full amount of the CCSP subvention held on deposit must be refunded to the parent/guardian once the child’s registration is approved.

It is also a condition of the new Core Funding scheme that deposits to secure early learning and care places must be refundable, which extends the requirement to do so beyond services participating in ECCE and CCSP.

In line with a commitment in First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy to improve the lives of babies, young children and their families, and informed by recommendations in the Partnership for the Public Good report on a new funding model for early learning and care and school-age childcare, officials in my Department are currently progressing the development of a new strand of funding - Tackling Disadvantage - whereby, services will be provided with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing their services who are experiencing disadvantage.

Consultations with a wide range of stakeholders have commenced, to inform and shape this work, including organisations representing families and single parent households.