Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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408. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the planned universal expansion of the national childcare scheme will extend to the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38928/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Childcare Support Act 2018, which provides a statutory basis for the National Childcare Scheme, specifies that only Tusla-registered providers are eligible to participate in the Scheme. The limitation of public funding schemes to Tusla-registered childcare providers helps to ensure that public funding is provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision.

The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028, which I launched in April 2021, set out a pathway for the extension of registration to childminders who work in their own homes. A key objective of the National Action Plan for Childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to benefit from State subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme. As a result of the Child Care Act 2024 and the Childminding Services Regulations, which came into effect on 30 September, childminders are now able to apply to register with Tusla and can therefore also take part in the National Childcare Scheme.

The National Action Plan for Childminding distinguishes childminding which involves care in the childminder’s home from care that takes place in the child’s home, which may be carried out by a nanny, an au pair or a babysitter. The employment relationship and the legal and regulatory context are different. Whereas a childminder working from the childminder’s own home is self-employed and offers a service that may be accessed on a public basis, someone caring for a child in the child’s own home is regarded as an employee of the child’s parents. In addition, the employment of someone in the child’s home may involve a combination of caring with other roles, e.g. cleaning or other domestic duties. Furthermore, because they work in the parents’/child’s home rather than their own home, au pairs and nannies cannot be held responsible for the safety or suitability of that home for the purpose of early learning or childcare. For these reasons, the Childminding Services Regulations do not apply to the care of a child by a nanny or au pair.

Currently there are no plans to bring nannies/au pairs into the scope of registration, or the National Childcare scheme.