Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2017
720. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to alleviate the amount of unpaid hours early child care providers will spend due to increased administration with the roll-out of the Government's more affordable childcare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32949/17]
View answerI recognise that the childcare programmes require administration. I announced in June that an additional €3.5m in "non-contact" payments is being made available to services who sign up to the September 2017 more affordable childcare measures. This non-contact time payment for the period from September 2017 recognises the additional administrative demand on childcare providers in terms of:
- Time of provider required to familiarise themselves with new Grant Agreements.
- Participation in information events, consulting with City/County Childcare Committees (CCCs), and advisors associated with the childcare provider’s business (e.g. accountants, legal).
- Attending training sessions with the CCCs / Pobal on the schemes and PIP.
- Speaking to parents about the schemes and answering their questions.
- Administrative time to, for example, sign contracts and engage with Pobal’s IT system (PIP), register children on PIP, meet statutory obligations re data holding, make changes to published fee schedules as required by Pobal.
- Following up with parents who have not provided necessary documentation.
- Verifying children’s attendance and meeting compliance obligations for all universal and targeted scheme beneficiaries.
The value of the payment will be equivalent to 7 days of the total value of registrations under CCS (including Universal CCS) and TEC programmes.
This is in addition to the payment currently available for drawdown by services on foot of Budget 2017, where I secured €14.5m towards "non-contact time". I understand that the majority of services have now been paid, an average of over €2,000 under this scheme.
I would also like to highlight that when my Department prepares for each programme cycle, we try to appropriately balance the need to account for public monies with the administrative burden this places on childcare providers. We will continue to work towards the most efficient system in this regard balanced against those key requirements.
