Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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447. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children accessing the national childcare scheme from 12 to 15 years old, when qualifying children cease to be eligible; and the cost of same [39907/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is noted that the question refers to the age at which qualifying children cease to be eligible for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). For this reason, it should be noted that while both the Universal and Income-Assessed subsidies are available for children aged up to 15 years (meaning their eligibility ceases on the day of their 15th birthday), the upper age eligibility can extend beyond this in the case of Sponsorship.

A Sponsor Referral is available under Section 14 of the Childcare Support Act 2018 whereby childcare is needed on child welfare, child protection, family support or other specified grounds. Depending on the statutory body referring a child, sponsorship may be made available for vulnerable children up to the age of 18 years.

Therefore, based on the nature of the question, Sponsored children have been included in our returning data. A full breakdown of the number of children aged 12 years and over, according to age and application type, is detailed as follows:

The total number of children aged 12 years and over with a valid claim for 2024, year-to-date, is 4,399. The value of claims associated with this cohort, year-to-date, is €2,726,969.

Regarding the above data, it should be noted that totals may vary because of two factors. Firstly, a child may avail of more than one subsidy type in a calendar year - in which case, they will be counted for both (i.e. Income Assessed and Universal). However, these children will only appear once in the total. Secondly, a child may enter, or exit, different age groups during a calendar year. In this case, the child is counted for claims in both age categories but again, only once in the total. For these reasons, there may be some variance in the totals detailed above.