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Child Care Services Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 July 2014

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Questions (70)

Ruth Coppinger

Question:

70. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his plans to reinstate the 2009 cuts to the early childcare supplement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28006/14]

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Written answers

The Early Childcare Supplement was introduced in April 2006 to assist parents with the costs of caring for children in their pre-school years. Due to the need to reduce public expenditure, a number of reductions were made to the Early Childcare Supplement from 2009 and the then Government took a decision to abolish the Early Childcare Supplement with effect from the 31st December 2009. At its peak the payment cost €480 million in 2008. Some of the funding previously available to support the provision of the Early Childcare Supplement was redirected to provide for the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, or free pre-school year, at an annual cost of €175 million.

The redirection of resources to this more targeted and child-centred policy is in line with the generally held principle that pre-primary education is a key determinant of student performance at all levels of education as it leads to improvements in motivation and the propensity to learn, which in turn raises the social and private returns from all future investments in their education. It also addressed the general criticism of the Early Childcare Supplement that it directed resources away from a more targeted and beneficial investment in early years care and education, in particular in the form of pre-school education.

While I believe the last Government missed a great opportunity to re-direct more money from the Early Childcare Supplement into promoting greater quality and accessibility for early childhood care and education, this Government has no plans to re-introduce the Early Childcare Supplement. Even if such funding was available from the Exchequer, its re-introduction would not be a good use of resources which would yield much greater benefits if used to directly support quality early years services.

This Government has made a very significant commitment in maintaining the pre-school year on a universal and free basis despite the current budgetary situation. The Early Childhood Care and Education programme, which represents an investment of almost €175 million annually, is funded by my Department through the provision of capitation grants paid directly to participating services. It is a fundamental principle of the programme that the pre-school provision is available to parents free of charge. In the region of 68,000 children benefit from the free pre-school provision each year.

There is significant international evidence of the benefits for children's outcomes of the provision of quality education and childcare in the earliest years. The provision of targeted funding to support specific early years childcare programmes is considered the best option for the use of the available resources and the Government will continue to fund these programme with an emphasis on improving the quality of the services provided.

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