Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
977. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the percentage of State spending and parental spending in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021 on early learning care and school-aged care in tabular form. [31359/21]
View answerMy Department operates a number of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) schemes. These schemes are administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department.
Data captured in a survey administered to all centre-based providers nationally in 2018 as part of the Review of the Cost of Providing Quality Childcare Services provided a breakdown of provider income. That Review found that parental fees accounted for, on average, 40% of all overall service income, with the remainder coming from State funding. Data from the Review also found that for over 70% of services, 30% or less of their income came from parental fees. Reliance on parental fees can vary considerably across service types. Services which only or primarily deliver the ECCE programme are likely to have little or no reliance on parental fees. See the following table for a detailed breakdown.
2018 Breakdown of % ELC Providers Income from Parental Fees
|
% of income from parental fees |
Percentage of ELC providers |
|
0% |
32.4% |
|
<0-10% |
21.9% |
|
<10-20% |
10.5% |
|
<20-30% |
6.6% |
|
<30-40% |
5.2% |
|
<40-50% |
4.9% |
|
<50-60% |
4.5% |
|
<60-70% |
5.1% |
|
<70-80% |
3.7% |
|
<80-90% |
2.8% |
|
100% |
2.4% |
In 2019, €497m of funding was allocated directly to services through my Department's ELC schemes. Assuming the same income breakdown for ELC providers as 2018, this funding accounted for approximately 60% of the ELC sector income. It can thus be deduced that approximately €331m (40%) of the ELC sector income came from parental fees in 2019.
Due to the significant disruption to the ELC sector in 2020 and 2021, and the various funding packages provided to support services through Covid-19 related periods of closures and restricted access, some of which had as a requirement of that funding to waive fees for parents not accessing ELC during those periods, it is not possible to provide relevant comparable data for these time periods.
