Anne Rabbitte
Question:653. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated date of delivery for the affordable child care scheme. [25748/17]
View answerTuesday, 30 May 2017
Questions (653)
Written answers
I recently announced a range of measures that will be introduced this September to make childcare more affordable for thousands of families throughout Ireland. This honours a key commitment in the Programme for Government.
The measures I am putting in place will ensure that parents of tens of thousands of children due to benefit under the Affordable Childcare Scheme will be given the opportunity to avail of increased childcare subsidies from September. These measures include:
- a new universal, non-means tested childcare subsidy that will benefit parents with children aged between 6 months and 36 months in registered childcare; and
- increased subsidy rates, in some cases by as much as 50%, that will be provided under existing schemes, specifically the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) and Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) Schemes.
I remain strongly committed to introducing the Affordable Childcare Scheme and will do so at the earliest possible date. My Department has made good progress in this regard. The Government has approved the Heads of Bill for the Scheme, and officials are working intensively to plan for successful implementation of the Scheme. However, I am conscious that this is a complex project which we must get right from the beginning. We need to have the legislation, business processes and a new robust IT system in place. We will need to test the scheme rigorously to ensure that it works properly so that families can easily see their entitlements.
My officials are working intensively to deliver the scheme as quickly as possible, but I believe that it is prudent to take time to ensure we get the new systems right, so that they operate smoothly for everyone. I want to build a system that will underpin childcare supports for children and investment in the childcare sector for years to come. We are well on our way to introducing the Affordable Childcare Scheme. When fully operational it will be a state of the art system which will be capable of delivering, not just for this generation of children, but also for generations to come.