Paul Murphy
Question:1066. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will address a matter regarding crèche fees (details supplied). [62965/21]
View answerWednesday, 19 January 2022
Questions (1066)
Written answers
On 7 December, Government accepted the recommendations of an Expert Group contained in the report Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare. The introduction of fee control measures is one of the recommendations of the Expert Group, and further information on proposed fee management mechanisms in the longer term is available in the Group's report.
The recommendations of the Expert Group are designed to deliver quality for children, affordability for parents, stability for providers, and support employers to improve pay and conditions for staff. The report of the Expert Group is available here: first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/report/.
The Expert Group report informed the transformative package of measures for the sector committed in Budget 2022. This will see Government investment in the sector reaching €716 million this year, an increase of €78 million from €638 million in 2021.
The Budget announcements included a Transition Fund between May and August 2022 and a new Core Funding stream from September 2022. In the case of both funding streams, the contractual requirement will be for fees to remain at or below September 2021 levels for the period of the schemes. These requirements for both the Transition Fund and Core Funding will apply to all services who contract into the schemes.
Budget 2022 also confirmed that ELC and SAC employers will continue to benefit from the exemption to the turnover rule for the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme until April 2022 in order to prevent the additional costs from public health measures being passed on to parents.
The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) has been available to employers in the sector since August 2020, with enhanced Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme rates equalling €34 million per month, covering on average 80% of payroll costs and 50% of total operating costs for providers.
In light of the continuing high levels of investment in the sector, with enhanced EWSS rates currently covering up to 80% of payroll costs and 50% of operating costs for providers, I believe that there is not a case for fee increases during this time.
I might add that where providers require further financial assistance in addition to current supports available, the Department operates a Covid-19 Impact Support Scheme. This is additional to the existing financial supports and is to support the sustainability of ELC and SAC services who may be left with short-term sustainability concerns due to lower attendance or higher costs arising from COVID-19. This scheme supports services to remain open without increasing their Registered Fees to parents or guardians.
Sustainability Funding also continues to be available to providers where there are sustainability difficulties and I have requested that providers would exhaust this route before considering increases in fees for parents.
The package of measures announced in Budget 2022 is designed to ensure that fees to parents do not increase and that the full affordability benefits of the National Childcare Scheme are felt without being absorbed in fee increases.