Kathleen Funchion
Question:877. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the total income for the early years' sector from State spending and parental spending. [15787/20]
View answerTuesday, 14 July 2020
Questions (877)
Written answers
My Department does not record parental spending in the early years sector.
Data from the Independent Review of the Costs indicates that approximately, 42% of service income is from parental fees with the remainder (i.e. 58%) of income provided by the State.
My Department funds childcare providers through subsidy and grant schemes. The subsidy schemes, which are administered by Pobal, include ECCE, the National Childcare Scheme, CCSP and TEC. In addition, Programme Support Payments are made to providers each year, based on the number of children they have registered on each scheme. Capital grants are available annually, and providers are invited to apply for a grant under a competitive process.
All schemes, other than the capital grant programme, are operated on a programme year basis, which opens in late August. The 2018/19 Programme year ran from 27 August 2018 to 23 August 2019. The capital grant programme is operated on a calendar year basis.
For the 2018 /19 programme year, the last programme year for which full information is available, the total income paid to childcare providers under all Department funding schemes and programmes was €488.6million. As the budget for childcare increased in 2019/ 2020, and the number of services remained relatively stable, this amount will have increased. It is important to draw attention to the wide range which lies behind the average; the range varies from services with less than 10 part-time children to services with over 200 children, many of whom are full time.
Separate data has indicated that, on average, services receive 78% of their income from the State (this includes a large number of services which are ECCE only). Data also indicates that of all income earned by providers in the sector, 58% comes from the State, with the balance coming from parental income. This data is based on 2017/ 2018 income and both State investment and parental fees have risen since then.