Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 December 2022
190. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the level of funding provided to childcare providers under the ECCE scheme from 2015-2022 broken down per county; the number of childcare providers that received funding per year per county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62501/22]
View answerThe Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. The programme runs from September to June each year and is aligned with the primary school calendar. There are currently in excess of 106,000 children enrolled on the ECCE programme
The accompanying spreadsheet shows ECCE funding, by county, from 2017 to date. Prior to September 2016 ECCE funding was not recorded by county.
In 2015, €168,529,525 was paid in ECCE funding increasing to €207,508,000 in 2016.
It is important to note that as ECCE runs from September to June, funding for the programme overlaps two financial years, which is reflected in the accompanying spreadsheet.
