Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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344. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the childcare fees being paid by parents at present, by county; and the childcare fees that will be paid by parents from September 2024, by county, in tabular form. [4680/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Pobal Annual Early Years Sector Profile (AEYSP) provides a detailed overview of the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector in Ireland, including the numbers of children in receipt of state subsidies, information on ELC and SAC fees, staff wages, qualifications and turnover.

In December 2023, my Department launched the Early Learning and Childcare Data website, replacing the traditional paper-based AEYSP report. The website provides a new and innovative way of displaying administrative data as well as survey data collected annually from over 4,400 early learning and childcare services across the country, supporting evidence-informed policy development and planning.

This new website will include a series of interactive dashboards that will be released by Pobal on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) over the coming weeks and months.

Released sequentially, the first iteration of this new dashboard will see the 2021/22 data published alongside the 2022/23 data. The dashboard is still under development, but my Department has asked that the data on fees be expedited.

The most recently published Pobal Annual Early Years Sector Profile, covers the programme year 2020/21, and during this period the average weekly fee nationally per child for full day care was €186.84, for part-time was €110.92 and for sessional care was €74.20. The fees for all types of provision remained almost the same, with less than 0.5% change for all types of care compared to 2019/20. It should be noted that this fee data is prior to the application of any subsidies.

Table: Average weekly fee by county and type of care provision

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides two types of subsidies available to all children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years who are attending registered childcare:

• a universal subsidy of €1.40 per hour
• an income assessed subsidy which is means tested and is calculated based on the applicant’s individual circumstances. The subsidy varies depending on the level of family income, parent work status, the child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in a family

The Scheme has an hours based design and is designed to fit around the needs of families. The family agrees the number of hours to be used with their provider and (within overall scheme limits) these hours are registered with the scheme administrator. The amount paid under the NCS is based on the actual hours of childcare used.

The standard weekly ECCE capitation is €69.00 for the 2023/2024 programme year. Where a child is availing of additional care in a part-time or full-time service the approved provider must reduce the fees paid by the parent/guardian by a minimum of €64.50.