Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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1837. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if her Department will examine issues related to the lack of flexibility in the national childcare scheme, particularly in cases where parents such as teachers are charged additional fees for childcare services they do not use or require; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19319/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Many families avail of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) as a way to reduce the cost of their early learning and childcare. The Scheme is designed to be flexible in acknowledgement that childcare needs differ widely across these families. For this reason, NCS subsidies are awarded as an hourly rate, along with a maximum number of weekly hours that the subsidy will be paid for.

Regarding fees charged for hours not required, it is important to note that early learning and childcare providers are private businesses. As such, they are free to set their own sessions – which the Department has no control over. Depending on what sessions the provider chooses to offer, a parent may be required to pay for hours that they do not avail of. In such instances, the NCS subsidy will only be applied to the hours actually attended by the child and any additional hours will be unsubsidised.

This is a key financial and governance control to ensure that Exchequer funding is being used responsibly and not being used to fund full-time places in respect of children who are actually attending part-time hours.

Ultimately, it is between the parent and provider to agree on the hours of childcare registered. The hours should be agreed based on a combination of what the family requires and what the provider can offer in terms of sessions. The subsidy is then paid based on these agreed hours – subject to the rules of non-attendance.

It may be of use to note that a valid NCS award can be used with any childcare provider that is contracted to deliver the NCS. It is open to parents to source alternative childcare places where their chosen provider does not suit their needs. Their local City/County Childcare (CCC) may be able to assist in this process. A full list of participating services is also available here: www.ncs.gov.ie/en/childcare-search/.

Finally, it is appreciated that sometimes there may be a disconnect between the number of weekly hours of childcare that parents require versus the types of services that a particular provider offers (e.g. part-time or full-time sessions). However, the rules of the Scheme have been designed with flexibility in mind regarding attendance so as to reflect the reality of parent’s lives. This includes:

1) Enabling providers to round-up part hours of daily attendance to the next whole hour. For example, if a child attends 4 hours and 1 minute or more, it is recorded as 5 hours of attendance for that day.

2) Providing for particular exemptions to the attendance rules under certain circumstances to allow for extended absences in exceptional circumstances.

3) Allowing a 12-week window for under-attendance before a subsidy is revised. This means that if a parent occasionally collects their child early, or the child under-attends due to illness, no change to the subsidy will incur until the child persistently under-attends for 12 consecutive weeks. Further, as long as the under-attendance is broken by one full week of attendance of the agreed hours before this point, the subsidy will remain unchanged.

The above flexibilities go some way towards off setting the issues arising from providers offering sessional only services. Parents should discuss the hours of childcare that they require with their providers to ensure that they are receiving appropriate subsidies for the agreed hours.

Parents seeking further support in relation to their NCS award are advised to contact Pobal's Parent Support Centre who are best placed to advise. The Parent Support Centre is available for contact on 01 906 8530, Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. Further information is also available on the NCS website. The website's FAQs (www.ncs.gov.ie/en/faqs/.) in particular may be useful.