Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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34. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if extra funding can be provided by the Government for communities fundraising for the provision of a childcare after-school facility in their local area, due to the escalating cost of living people are faced with; and if he is aware that these facilities are a vital part of the community and school, and that without them, working parents have to send the children to other schools outside of their area, which leads to a reduced number of children attending their local schools. [26332/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Since 2020, there has been a significant increase in the number of stand-alone school-age childcare services registered with Tusla, with 546 more services now on the Tusla register. At the end of Q1 2024, there was a total of 2,546 registered school-age services. A large number of early learning and childcare services also offer school-age childcare places in addition to places for younger children not yet in school.

The estimated number of school-going children enrolled in school-age childcare nationally rose by 26% over 2022 – 2023 alone, from 50,857 to 64161 enrolments.

This growth in school-age childcare provision and uptake has been supported by substantial increases in State investment and by changes to the National Childcare Scheme, including the extension of the universal subsidy under the scheme to children age 3.

There are also substantial numbers of services offering school-age childcare supported through Core Funding. These services are set to receive further increases in funding from September when the Core Funding allocation will increase by 15%, to €331 million for year three of the scheme.

According to latest data, almost 17% of all early learning and childcare services are located in schools.

The scope for wider use to be made of school buildings is a matter for the Department of Education and the various patrons that govern schools across the country. The Department of Education policy is to encourage the use of school facilities, where possible, for community, training and education-related activities, including early learning and childcare.

To assist schools in considering applications for use of their facilities, the Department of Education last week published Procedures on the use of School Buildings outside of School Hours. To encourage the greater use of such facilities, the Department of Education has committed to provide schools with a guarantee that any income from after-school use of their facilities will not affect their State grants, capitation fees or any other form of departmental funding.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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36. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on his Department’s efforts to reduce childcare costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26077/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In September 2022, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare.

This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for affordability, accessibility and quality for children and families as well as sustainability for providers.

Through Together for Better, my Department provides a number of schemes which offset the cost of early learning and childcare to families.

The ECCE programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96% each year. Over 70% of families on low income report that they would not be able to send their child to pre-school without this programme.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements the ECCE programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare.

Since January 2023 - with the increase in the minimum NCS subsidy to €1.40 per hour – out of pocket costs to families have fallen by 25% on average. From this September, the minimum subsidy will increase again to €2.14 per hour – and the cumulative reduction in out of pocket is estimated to reach 50% on average.

As of 6th June 2024, the total number of children who have benefited from the NCS subsidy now stands at 165, 052.

Finally, the fee freeze in place in 95% of early learning and childcare services as a result of the Core Funding scheme ensures that the investment in NCS has resulted in real change for parents and not been absorbed by fee increases.

Record numbers of children and their families are now benefiting from the NCS.

Later this year, an estimated 2,000 children in childminding settings will be added to this cohort of beneficiaries, when the initial cohort of childminders come forward for registration with Tusla enabling the NCS to be opened up to families using these childminders for the first time.