Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2014
680. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if subventions from private providers will be reintroduced to allow for a level playing field as private providers make up 70% of the child care sector yet they have more expenses than community based facilities, that is, rates, taxes and so on; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18707/14]
View answerA number of child care support programmes are implemented by my Department to assist parents with the cost of child care.
The Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme, which provides support to lower income and disadvantaged families, is only accessible through community not for profit child care services. This has been the case since the support programmes were initially introduced in 2000 under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) which was a joint EU/Exchequer funded child care programme.
The increase in child care places, which the EOCP investment and the later investment through the National Childcare Investment Programme (NCIP) provided for, ensured that parents who were disadvantaged or on low incomes and who could not access services in the private child care sector, had access to affordable and quality child care. The CCS continues to provide targeted funding towards disadvantaged parents and in the region of €40 million annually is provided by my Department to support this programme.
The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the Childhood Education and Training Support (CETS) programmes including the After School Childcare programme are provided through both private and community child care facilities. In the region of 75,000 children are supported under these programme each year which represents an annual investment in excess of €200 million. These programmes provide significant support to the private child care sector at a time when many private providers would, because of the economic situation, be experiencing considerable difficulties.
It is my objective to further develop the early childhood care and education sector when resources permit. There are no plans to extend the CCS programme to the commercial child care sector and the focus at the moment is to ensure that the current programmes, which support more than 100,000 children, are maintained within the limited funding available to my Department.
