Affordable Childcare Scheme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 September 2018

Thursday, 20 September 2018

Questions (33, 34, 37)

Niamh Smyth

Question:

33. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the affordable childcare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37902/18]

Aindrias Moynihan

Question:

34. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if the affordable childcare scheme is on target to launch in September 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38031/18]

Anne Rabbitte

Question:

37. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the roll-out of the affordable childcare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37968/18]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

I propose to take Questions Nos. 33, 34 and 37 together.

I am delighted to update you on the positive progress my department is making in developing the new Affordable Childcare Scheme.

Officials from my Department, along with colleagues in Pobal, have been working hard to develop the legal, technical and administrative infrastructure for the new Affordable Childcare Scheme. The scheme will provide financial support for parents, establish a sustainable platform for investment in the childcare sector for decades to come and- crucially- allow us to continue to invest in giving our children the best start in life.

The legislation establishing the new Affordable Childcare Scheme, the Childcare Support Act 2018, was signed by the President on Monday, 2nd July. The Act will be underpinned by detailed secondary legislation and formal policy guidelines. Work is currently ongoing on both of these and also on the development of regulations to provide, for the first time, for the registration of school-age childcare services by the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate. These latter regulations will be introduced in advance of the Affordable Childcare Scheme to allow school-age childcare services to register and thereby participate in the scheme from its inception.

With regard to the ICT system to underpin the scheme, my Department recently concluded a full open tender public procurement process and I have awarded a contract for the development of the system. The launch of the scheme is dependent on this ICT system. As such, now that a contractor is in place, my officials are finalising a detailed project plan and I will shortly confirm and communicate a planned start date for the Affordable Childcare Scheme.

Work is also progressing well on the administrative and communication elements of the scheme. This includes significant work in preparing timely and user-friendly information, resources and supports for parents, providers and other stakeholders. In tandem with the development of these resources, I am also committed to ongoing consultation and engagement with all stakeholders in the run-up to the introduction of the scheme.

The Affordable Childcare Scheme is ambitious in scale and complex in its design but I am delighted that we are making good progress and confident of the lasting impact it will have once launched.

In order to fast-track some of the benefits of the new scheme, last September I introduced a series of measures to make childcare more affordable for Irish families. These involved an increase of up to 50% in current targeted childcare subsidy rates and a new universal subsidy for all children aged between 6 months and 3 years who are in a Tusla-registered setting. To date, these measures have seen very good take-up rates and 84,000 children have benefited. The measures will continue to be available over 2018 and 2019, remaining in place until the Affordable Childcare Scheme goes live.