Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1400. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost to provide a €100 a week cap for childcare costs; and if she will consider the introduction of such a support for families. [11889/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There are two types of subsidies available under the National Childcare Scheme:

• Universal Subsidies are available to all families with children under 15 years old. This subsidy is not means tested and provides €2.14 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week.
• Income Assessed Subsidies are available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years. This subsidy is means tested and will be calculated based on individual circumstances. The rate will vary depending on the level of family income, child age and educational stage, and the number of children in a family.

1. Increase in universal subsidy from €1.40 to €2.14.
2. Extension of NCS to families availing of childminders
3. Increase in NCS sponsor subsidy to €5.30 per hour for all children over the age of 1.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1401. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost for the State to make an annual €3,000 childcare subvention available to mothers and fathers who choose to stay at home within the first three years of the child's life; and if she will consider the introduction of such a subvention. [11890/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There a number of supports available through the Department of Social Protection and through the tax system to support parents to stay at home and care for their children.

From 1 August 2024, parents can now avail of 9 weeks paid Parent’s Leave and Benefit. This measure means that under the Parent’s Leave and Benefit schemes, the number of weeks that parents can take time off work, with financial support from the State, increases from 7 weeks to 9 weeks. With this new measure the Government has now more than quadrupled paid parent's leave, from two weeks up to nine weeks. Budget 2025 saw further increases to rates of these payments. The Deputy is advised to contact the Department of Social Protection for further queries in this regard.

In addition, the Deputy may wish to note the existence the Home Carer Tax Credit for tax payers who are married, or in a civil partnership, and who care for one, or more, dependent person. The Home Carer Tax Credit rate is €1,950 for 2025. The Deputy is advised to contact the Department of Finance for further queries in this regard.

This Department’s investment with regard to early learning and childcare is focused on provision outside the family home. This includes early learning and childcare and childminders working in the childminder’s own home.

The issue of payments to parents to allow the family fund their early learning and childcare directly has been considered at several junctures in recent years.

“Demand side measures” (i.e. funding directly to parents) and “supply side measures” (i.e. funding directly to providers to assist in the meeting the cost of early learning and childcare provision and/or to reduce parents fees) were explored in the context of the development of National Childcare Scheme (NCS).

The 2016 policy paper, which informed the subsequent development of the NCS, concluded that supply-side measures offer the State greater “steering capacity, in terms of ensuring equity of access and driving quality in early learning and childcare services. This is because well-designed supply-side measures offers the State several policy levers (e.g. subsidy levels linked to quality, conditions for provider participation, regulation of co-payments etc.) through which policy objectives can be pursued.

The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent Budgets with the minimum NCS subsidy steadily rising from €0.50 in 2022 to €2.14 in September 2024 alongside extensions to eligibility. Additionally, families availing of a childminder can now claim an NCS subsidy towards their costs.

The Core Funding Model, a new direct supply-side measure was introduced in 2022. Through Core Funding, my Department financially contributes to the running of early learning and childcare services in return for conditions related to quality of the sector, staff pay and affordability for families. A fee management system in place for over 92% of services due to Core Funding ensures that the benefits of these schemes are not unnecessarily absorbed by fee increases.

The emphasis on supply-side funding allows my Department to leverage quality of the sector and make progress towards a more publicly managed service, where policy levers can be used to support quality, affordability, availability, access, and sustainability. Additionally, lower-income families would not benefit as much from demand side measures as those with higher incomes.