Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 May 2024
90. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide a breakdown of referrals for NCS sponsorship by each of the Minister for Education, the Minister for Justice, Tusla, the HSE and local authorities in each of the years 2022, 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form. [21918/24]
View answerThe Sponsorship arrangement available under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) makes special provision for vulnerable children.
The NCS Sponsorship arrangement allows designated bodies to refer children to the Scheme where early learning and care is needed on child welfare, protection, family support or other specified grounds. Where a referral is made by a Sponsor body, the family will automatically qualify for a subsidy without having to satisfy the Scheme’s eligibility, income or enhanced hours requirements. The Scheme will pay the full cost of the early learning and care for families referred to the Scheme by a Sponsor Body.
A full breakdown of the number of children receiving Sponsorship in the specified years, according to Sponsor body is detailed below. The table includes a year-to-date figure for 2024 (up to week starting 29 April).
|
Sponsor Body |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 YTD |
|
Department of Education (DOE) |
4 |
4 |
2 |
|
Health Services Executive (HSE) |
588 |
903 |
711 |
|
Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) |
227 |
214 |
175 |
|
National Homeless Authorities |
563 |
658 |
470 |
|
TUSLA Child and Family Agency |
3,887 |
5,496 |
4,175 |
|
Grand Total |
5,207 |
7,197 |
5,508 |
Please note that children may have sponsored claims under applications by multiple Sponsor Bodies throughout the year. In such cases, they will be counted under the relevant Sponsor Bodies for the individual totals however, they will only be counted once for the Grand Total, where they are identified uniquely. For this reason, there may be some variance between the total of the rows above and the Grand Total.
