Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1222. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her plans to extend the National Childcare Scheme to childminders working in the family home; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30366/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The National Childcare Scheme provides subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare. The Childcare Support Act 2018, which provides a statutory basis for the National Childcare Scheme, specifies that only Tusla-registered providers are eligible to participate in the Scheme. The limitation of public funding schemes to Tusla-registered childcare providers helps to ensure that public funding is provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision.

The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 set out a pathway for the extension of registration to childminders. A key objective of the National Action Plan for Childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to benefit from State subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme. As a result of the commencement of the relevant parts of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024 and the Childminding Services Regulations, which came into effect on 30 September 2024, childminders are now able to apply to register with Tusla and can therefore also take part in the National Childcare Scheme.

The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024, enacted and part commenced last year defines a “childminding service” as follows:

‘childminding service’ means a service that:

"(a) entails an individual taking care, by himself or herself, of children under the age of 15 years, in the home of the individual, and

(b) is provided to children (other than that individual’s own children) for a total period of not less than 2 hours per day."

In line with this definition, a primary feature of a childminder is that they undertake the work in the childminder's family home.

The childminding-specific Regulations, which came into effect last September, are designed to be proportionate and appropriate to the home and family setting in which childminders work.

The National Action Plan for Childminding distinguishes childminding which involves care in the childminder’s home from care that takes place in the child’s home, which may be carried out by a nanny, au pair or babysitter. This distinction is also reflected in the legal definition of a childminder set out in the primary legislation.

Childminders now have a three-year transition period (to September 2027) during which they are able to register with Tusla but are not yet required to do so. Once registered with Tusla, a childminder can apply to take part in the National Childcare Scheme, thus opening access to subsidies to parents who use childminders.

During the transition period, supports are available for childminders at local level through the City and County Childcare Committees. Each City and County Childcare Committee employs a Childminding Development Officer, who provides a range of supports to local childminders, including a short pre-registration training course.

While my Department has successfully completed Phase 1 of the National Action Plan, considerable challenges lie ahead during Phase 2 in supporting the large number of unregistered childminders to register with Tusla and take part in the National Childcare Scheme before the end of the transition period in 2027. Given the scale of the challenge that still remains, my priority is to deliver on the remaining phases of the National Action Plan in the coming years.

The National Action Plan commits to a review of the initial implementation of the childminding-specific Regulations before 2028. This review will be broad in scope. My Department will undertake this review (which will include consultation with childminders and other stakeholders) during the three-year transition period which runs to 2027. Following conclusion of this review I will give consideration to the appropriate next steps.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1223. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the annual budget for the national childcare scheme in each year since it was introduced, in tabular form; the number of childcare providers in receipt of NCS funding in each of these years; the number of children being supported in each of these years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30367/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Significant investment is being made by my Department to address affordability of early learning and childcare through the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further reduce the cost of early learning and childcare for families. 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 €96.30 per week for 45 hours. These changes of are significant benefit to many families.

As per Budget 2025 measures, an additional €160.7 million was announced for the NCS - bringing investment in the Scheme up to €529.8 million in 2025. This represents a 44% increase on the 2024 allocation. Full details of budget allocations since Scheme launch are as follows:

Year-to-date, the total number of unique children who have benefitted from an NCS subsidy is 191,396 while the total number of services offering the Scheme is 4,016. YTD figures are expected to increase as the months progress. Additional information as requested is presented in tabular form below: