Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 November 2021
638. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the hours allocated in term time for children whose parents are not working or in education; the date this entitlement is from; if it commences from now, January 2022 or September 2022; when the universal entitlement will be rolled out to all SAC children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52371/21]
View answerFollowing Budget 2022, two significant reforms will be introduced to the operation of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). It is intended that these reforms will make it possible for significantly more families to apply to the NCS.
The first change is the discontinuation of the practice of deducting hours spent in ECCE or school from the entitlement to NCS subsidised hours.
Currently, where both parents in a household are in work or study, eligible families can receive a subsidy for up to 45 hours (enhanced hours) per week and, for households where a parent is not in work or study they can receive up to 20 hours (standard hours) per week of subsidy. Where a child is in pre-school, ECCE or school these hours are subtracted from their entitlement to NCS subsidised hours. With this change, parents can avail of all these hours regardless of time spent in school or ECCE.
It is anticipated that this will have the most significant impact on children in socio-economically disadvantaged communities and, on services with high concentrations of families from socio-economically disadvantaged communities. This change will require adjustments to secondary legislation and to the scheme operating system. This work is expected to be completed in Spring 2022 and the change will take effect at that point .
The universal subsidy will be made available to all families with children up to the age of 15 from September 2022. Parents do not have to undergo an assessment to avail of this subsidy. The universal subsidy provides €0.50 cent per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place up to a maximum of 45 hours a week, which totals €1,170 per annum. It is estimated an additional 40,000 children may benefit from the extension of the universal subsidy.
