Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her proposals to deliver affordable childcare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21005/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child. A number of existing Schemes would need to play a role to achieve these aims.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (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 ELC and SAC.

The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth a minimum of €96.20 per week for 45 hours.

The fee management system introduced through the Core Funding Scheme has ensured that the investment in affordability is not absorbed by uncapped fees. A cap on fees was introduced for services joining Core Funding for the first time in the third year. It was announced in June 2024 that a fee cap will apply to all services in Core Funding from September 2025.

Record numbers of children and their families are now benefiting from the NCS. Almost 220,000 unique children benefited from an NCS subsidy in 2024.

Children in childminding settings that have come forward for registration, following changes to the childminder Tulsa registration requirements last September, can also benefit from NCS subsidies.

An evaluation of the National Childcare Scheme is due to start this year. This evaluation will review how the Scheme has performed to date and identify potential enhancements that could be made. The findings from this evaluation will inform the work of my Department in establishing a family level fee cap.

The Government of Ireland is committed to continuing to improve affordability and reach the €200 per month cap within the lifetime of the Government. However, further progress on affordability cannot be made in isolation and must be integrated with our efforts to improve access, availability and quality.