Kathleen Funchion
Question:501. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare and early years facilities that are open for front-line workers. [5719/21]
View answerWednesday, 3 February 2021
Questions (501)
Written answers
On Tuesday 26 January, Government made the decision to extend the suspension of the ECCE programme and to continue to restrict access to other early learning and childcare services to the children of essential workers and to vulnerable children. It is currently planned for these arrangements to be in place until 5 March, with the timeframe remaining subject to review in the context of the evolving public health circumstances.
Latest data gathered from the City/County Childcare Committees show that more than 1,800 early learning and childcare services are open nationally. The majority of services are operating at an average occupancy of 25%, however there is a wide range (5% to 70%) in occupancy levels across the sector.
New funding arrangements have been put in place for period 1 February to 5 March that will enable these services to remain open, even at very low levels of occupancy while also retaining their staff and waiving fees for parents who are not using early learning and childcare services at this time. These funding arrangements are:
- Services open will continue to receive 70% of the value of ECCE programme funding and 100% of funding provided under other Department schemes. These services can also receive the additional 30% of the value of ECCE Programme funding if they commit to certain conditions that includes waiving fees for parents not using the service and retaining staff where possible.
- Services closed, where the closure is approved by my Department, will receive 70% of the value of ECCE programme funding and 100% of funding provided under other Department schemes. This funding will be conditional on a commitment to waive fees for parents and retain staff where possible.
- A newly designed Covid-19 Operating Support Payment has been put in place to support some providers with a significant reliance on parental fee income to waive fees during this period while remaining sustainable.
EWSS remains central to these funding arrangements. With enhanced EWSS rates until end March 2021, EWSS is estimated to cover 80% of payroll costs or 50% of full operating costs of these services.
Question No. 502 answered with Question No. 498.