Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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41. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will examine flexibility under the national childcare scheme as regards hours attended by children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43556/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The NCS is designed to substantially reduce costs to families using eligible early learning and childcare. It is designed to be flexible, recognising that early learning and childcare needs are different for each family.

The underpinning rationale of the Scheme, including the hours based aspect, was set out in the 2016 "Policy Paper on the Development of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme" and given statutory expression through the Oireachtas in the Childcare Support Act 2018.

The hours based nature of the NCS is designed to fit around the needs of families and ensure that the reach and effectiveness of funding is maximised through application to actual usage of early and learning and childcare usage.

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. This design allows the parents to receive a subsidy for the hours that they actually require. The number of hours can also be altered week to week, for example during a school midterm the parents subsidy can be increased.

My Department has also sought to strike balance between the concept of money following the child and stability for early learning and childcare providers. As such the NCS has been consciously designed to be more flexible than its antecedent schemes.

Funding is only adjusted if the level of attendance that the family and provider originally set does not actual manifest over an extended period. In the usual course a warning will issue after 8 weeks and, if not adjusted after 12 weeks, the allocation will be adjusted to reflect the real pattern of attendance. This period can be extended under certain circumstances.

To be clear, if a child is occasionally picked up early or misses an occasional day, this will have no impact on funding.

This combination of flexibility, accountability and funding approaches provides an appropriate balance to support parents, providers and ensure the best use of exchequer funding.

Finally, I would note that my Department will soon commence an independent evaluation of the NCS which will examine how the Scheme is operating and identify potential changes or improvements to the Scheme. Any changes to NCS policy will be informed by consultation with stakeholders who are affected by the scheme.