Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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156. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated first year and full year cost of increasing the ECCE capitation grant by 10%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24145/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme scheme is a universal scheme which provides 2 years of free preschool to children in the eligible age range of 2 years and 8 months to 5 years and 6 months. My Department funds private early learning and care service providers to provide the ECCE programme at a standard rate of €69 per week per child attending the ECCE programme.

With the addition of the Core Funding Scheme in 2022, services providing the ECCE programme who are also signed up to Core Funding receive a minimum of €79.20 per child per week in capitation. This figure can rise to a maximum of €95.85 with additional funding for graduate lead educators and graduate managers for sessional services.

To calculate the first year cost, officials in my Department used the ECCE allocation for August 2024 to December 2024 which is €107 million. Using this allocation the estimated first year cost of increasing ECCE capitation by 10% would be €10.7 million.

In calculating the full year cost, officials in my Department used the total budget allocation for the ECCE scheme for 2024 which is a total of €256 million. Using this allocation the estimated full year cost of increasing ECCE capitation by 10% would be €25.6 million.

It is important to note that these estimates does not account for change in usage resulting from this proposed subsidy increase. Any changes to subsidies may create a change in behaviours, for example, an increase in the number of services offering the scheme or families availing of ECCE for the first time.