Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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988. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to detail the number of children who benefited from supports under the national childcare scheme in 2022, 2023 and 2024, by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24368/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial supports to parents to help reduce the cost of early learning and childcare. The Scheme 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 €2.14 per hour.

These enhancements have helped to result in a positive growth in the number of families benefitting from NCS subsidies. As of 4 May, a total of 189,385 unique children have benefitted from an NCS subsidy in 2025 (YTD). Compared to the same period in 2024 (i.e. beginning May), we can see positive growth of over 20%.

It may also be worth noting that all childminders are now eligible to register with Tusla. This follows the commencement of legislation on 30th September 2024 which removes the legal exemption of childminders from registration and ensures parents who use Tusla-registered childminders are eligible for subsidies under the NCS.

The number of unique children who benefitted from an NCS subsidy for the specified years is detailed in the following table:

*Please note that there may be a difference between the sum of all Counties and the 'grand total'. This is because the total number of children per County includes children who may have claims across multiple Counties in a given year. However, for the purposes of the 'grand total', these children have only be counted once.