Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 September 2021
427. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps he is taking to ensure that childcare is affordable for parents and is not a factor in parents exiting the workforce prematurely; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44668/21]
View answerOne of my top priorities in Government is to improve affordability for parents. The Programme for Government commits to reforming the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) system to create one that brings together the best of community and private childcare provision, is focused on children’s rights and quality outcomes, reduces inequalities, supports staff retention, and substantially reduces costs to parents.
State investment in this sector has increased by an unprecedented 141% since 2015. This funding has been used to extend access and ensure that children can enrol and meaningfully participate in high-quality ELC and SAC. It has, for example, funded a second year of the universal Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) pre-school programme, enabled the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the introduction of the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM).
The ECCE pre-school programme provides for ELC provision for all children in the two years before they begin primary school for fifteen hours per week, entirely free for parents.
Families may also be entitled to subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme. The NCS represents the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for ELC and SAC in Ireland. The Scheme aims to improve outcomes for children, reduce poverty, facilitate labour activation, and tangibly reduce the cost of ELC and SAC for tens of thousands of families.
The Scheme comprises two types of subsidies:
- A universal subsidy is payable for children between the ages of 24 weeks and 36 months (or until the child qualifies for the ECCE programme if later) who are availing of childcare services from an approved childcare service provider. The universal subsidy is not means-tested and is available to all qualifying families of any income level.
- An income assessed subsidy is payable for children from 24 weeks to 15 years of age who are availing of childcare services from an approved childcare service provider. The level of subsidy is determined by the family’s assessable income (i.e. gross income minus tax, PRSI and other deductibles and minus any applicable multiple child discount).
NCS subsidies are awarded as an hourly rate for a maximum number of hours per week. Parents in work, study or training can avail of up to 45 subsidised hours of childcare per week. Parents not in work, study or training can avail of up to 20 subsidised hours of childcare per week.
Information on the Scheme can be found at www.ncs.gov.ie and by phoning the Parent Support Centre at 01 906 8530, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Parents can also contact their local City/County Childcare Committee to learn more about Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare supports available to them. Details about local CCCs can be found at www.myccc.ie.
Looking to the future, First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy for babies, young children and their families, commits to at least doubling investment in ELC and SAC in the decade to 2028. A key vehicle to ensure that such significant additional investment delivers for children, families and the State will be a new funding model. The new funding model will be the framework for additional investment in services in return for clear evidence of quality and affordability to ensure effective use of public funding.
An Expert Group has been leading the work on developing this new funding model since 2019. The Group is independently chaired and includes national and international experts in ELC and SAC systems, funding, quality, economics, and relevant policy experts from the Government Departments who will be involved in implementing the new funding model. They have met eighteen times to date and it is expected that their report will be submitted in November 2021. The Expert Group’s work is informing the Budget 2022 process.
The research partner for the funding model project, Frontier Economics, has produced eight working papers, with three that directly address affordability issues including international comparisons of fees and public investment, approaches to funding the early learning and care sector, and mechanisms to control fees charged to parents.
The Expert Group have agreed a set of draft guiding principles to underpin the new Funding Model, which state that funding should mitigate the cost of ELC and SAC to parents. They also set out that funding of ELC and SAC should support parents participating in employment, education or training and should, in so far as possible, be cognisant of the reasonable needs and choices of parents.
Further information on the work of the Expert Group and documentation related to the process is available at www.first5fundingmodel.gov.ie.
In addition, as set out in First 5, Parent’s Leave now entitles working parents to five weeks of paid parent’s leave during their child's first two years.
