Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 March 2013
232. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the children of participants in JobBridge are not included in band A for the childcare subvention scheme in view of the importance of this innovative scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14365/13]
View answerThe Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme provides funding to community childcare not-for-profit services to enable them to charge reduced childcare rates to parents in receipt of social welfare payments or on low to middle incomes. Community childcare services qualify for grant aid on the basis of the level of service they provide and the profile of the parents benefiting from their service.
Parents qualify for support under the CCS programme on the basis of their social welfare entitlement. The JobBridge scheme, which is implemented by the Department of Social Protection, is a National Internship Scheme which provides work experience placement for unemployed people. As the Deputy is aware participants in the JobBridge programme receive a weekly allowance of €50 in addition to any social welfare entitlement they may have.
Participants in the JobBridge scheme do not on the basis of participation in the scheme, automatically qualify for subvention under the CCS programme but qualify on the basis of their underlying social welfare entitlement. For example a parent who was in receipt of Job Seekers benefit and who holds a medical card qualifies for a subvention payment of €50 per week towards the cost of full-time childcare for the duration of their participation in the JobBridge scheme.
