Written Answers Nos. 676-691
676. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of unaccompanied Ukrainian minors that are currently in Ireland arising from the Temporary Protection Directive. [24415/23]
View answerStatutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.
677. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to set out the legal status of Ukrainian unaccompanied minors, specifically whether they are in the care of the Irish State. [24416/23]
View answerStatutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.
678. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of Ukrainian unaccompanied minors who have been allocated a designated social worker. [24417/23]
View answerStatutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.
679. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the services and supports which are available to Ukrainian unaccompanied minors. [24418/23]
View answerStatutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.
680. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the supports Ukrainian unaccompanied minors will be entitled two when they turn 18 years of age if they are not able to return to Ukraine before that date, and specifically whether they will be eligible for aftercare support available to Irish care leavers. [24419/23]
View answerStatutory and operational responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Deputy is seeking information in relation to an operational matter for Tusla. Consequently, I have referred the matter to Tusla, and requested that a direct response be provided to the Deputy.
681. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost of increasing the foster carer's basic payment by 25%. [24423/23]
View answerAs this relates to Tusla operational matters, the question has been forwarded to Tusla for direct reply to the Deputy.
682. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of early childhood care and education only providers, that is, providers that do not offer a service outside of ECCE provision; the amount of annual funding they received; the number of childcare providers in receipt of State funding in same; the amount of annual funding received; the number of providers in receipt of funding that do not provide ECCE; and the amount of annual funding received in 2022. [24424/23]
View answerThe number of services that have only signed an ECCE funding agreement is outlined in the table below. While these services do not have contracts with my Department for the provision of other funded early learning and childcare schemes, such as the NCS and the CCSP Saver Programme, they may be providing additional early learning and childcare services to parents on a fee paying basis. If they are providing additional services, they would not be an ECCE only service. The Department does not collect data from providers on private early learning and childcare arrangements.
With regard to services who have entered into contracts with my Department for subsidy schemes other than ECCE, the data is also outlined in the table below.
Total funding includes all funding paid under all schemes, Capital, AIM, etc. for the various scenarios.
|
No. of Services in Contract for Programme Call 2022/23 |
Cumulative Payments for 2022/23 Programme Call To Date € |
|
|
ECCE Only |
1,028 |
70,359,603.86 |
|
Non-ECCE |
628 |
29,996,217.19 |
|
Total |
1,656 |
100,355,821.05 |
Service Selection and Categorisation Methodology *
Unique services are identified by unique service reference numbers.
• Services are ECCE Only when only a contract for ECCE 2022/23 is found.
• Services are Non-ECCE when a contract is not found for ECCE 2022/23; service is only contracted for either NCS 2022/23, CCSP 2022/23, or both.
*All the information has been collated by Pobal from Early Years Platform and is correct as 17/5/23.
683. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of successful applicants for the building blocks improvement grant in 2021, 2022; and 2023 and the total in funding, respectively for each year. [24425/23]
View answer694. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the cost of increasing the building blocks improvement grant to €100,000 from a current ceiling of €75,000. [24436/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 683 and 694 together.
Some €69 million was allocated to the Early Learning and Childcare sector in the revised National Development Plan (NDP) allocation for the period 2023-2025. This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare across three pillars: (1) Building Blocks - Improvement Grant, (2) Building Blocks - Capacity Grant and (3) Building Blocks - Innovation Grant.
The €9 million Building Blocks - Improvement Grant was launched by my Department in September 2022 and applicants were advised of the outcome on 4th April 2023. Grants range from €35,000 to €75,000 across two separate strands: 1. Green Energy (Strand A) and 2. Retrofit (Strand B).
The Green Energy Strand will support the Climate Action Agenda and the Programme for Government, which aim to transition to a carbon neutral economy by the end of 2050 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030. Eligible works include improving the Building Energy Ratings and installing solar panels and heat pumps.
The Retrofit Strand will provide grants to existing services in need of upgrading. Eligible works include refurbishment, upgrading of sanitary facilities, roof repairs/replacement, and upgrading of flooring and windows.
The volume and quality of applications received and the amounts sought were particularly high. Overall, 141 services were successful in their applications.
Payments to all 141 services will be made during 2023. No payments issued in 2021 or 2022.
The Building Blocks - Improvement Grant was part of a wider Building Blocks Capital Programme for early learning and childcare under the National Development Plan designed to meet current and long-term early learning and childcare infrastructure needs.
The design of both the Building Blocks - Capacity Grant scheme and the Innovation Scheme are currently underway. These schemes will aim to address capacity gaps, fund the expansion of existing services and invest in the development of new services where most needed. I hope to provide more details of these two grant schemes in the coming months.
684. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of funding that was allocated in 2022 to the national childcare scheme; and the amount of this allocation that was spent in 2022, in tabular form. [24426/23]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support to help parents meet the cost of early learning and childcare and to support better outcomes for children. There are two types of supports available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years of age:
• A universal subsidy which is not means tested and provides €1.40 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week.
• An income assessed subsidy which is means tested and will be calculated based on individual circumstances. Rates vary depending on the level of family income, a child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in the family.
Budget 2022 introduced two important enhancements to the Scheme. The first, which came into effect on 2 May 2022 was the discontinuation of the practice of deducting hours spent in pre-school, or school, from the entitlement to NCS subsidised hours. The second change is that, from 29 August 2022, the NCS universal subsidy has been extended to all children under 15.
The amount of funding that was allocated to the Scheme in 2022, and the amount of this allocation that was spent is set out below in tabular form.
NCS 2022, €'000
|
2022 Original Allocation |
Supplementary Estimates |
2022 Outturn |
|
200,326 |
210,775 |
213,642 |
685. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount it cost the State to increase the universal subsidy under the national childcare scheme from 50c to €1.40. [24427/23]
View answer686. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount it cost the State to increase the universal subsidy under the national childcare scheme by 25% for all recipients. [24428/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 685 and 686 together.
There are two types of subsidies available under the National Childcare Scheme:
• Universal Subsidies are available to all families with children under 15 years old. This subsidy is not means tested and provides €1.40 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week.
• Income Assessed Subsidies are available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years. This subsidy is means tested and is calculated based on individual circumstances. Rates vary depending on the level of family income, a child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in the family.
At Budget time, I allocated a total of €358 million under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) for 2023. This figure is based on an additional €121 million being made available as a result of the estimated full year costs of a number of amendments to the Scheme:
• The removal of the practice of deducting hours spent in pre-school or school from the overall NCS hours award as of May 2022.
• The increase in the upper age eligibility for the NCS universal subsidy from 3 years to all children under 15 years as of August 2022.
• An increase in the NCS minimum subsidy from €0.50 to €1.40 as of 2nd January 2023.
The table below sets out the funding spent on NCS Universal Subsidies in 2023 to date:
|
Application Type |
Value of Subsidies Paid in 2023 |
|
NCS Universal |
€34,936,458 |
687. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of community creches who rely solely on State funding. [24429/23]
View answerPobal, the scheme administrator of the childcare funding programmes on behalf of my Department, do not record data on the number of community services who rely solely on State funding.
However, estimations can be provided based on the voluntary responses to the 2021/22 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey. Approximately 101 community services indicated they rely solely on State funding in the survey.
688. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total of additional ECCE places created in 2022. [24430/23]
View answerThe Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs from September to June each year.
For the 2021/22 programme year (September 2021 – June 2022), 107,782 children were enrolled on this programme. For the current programme year (September 2022 – June 2023), there are 108,482 enrolled on this programme.
Based on data captured through the Early Years Sector Profile Surveys 2020/22 (gathered in Spring 2021 with a response rate of 57%) and 2021/22 (gathered in Spring 2022 with a response rate of 82.5%) – extrapolated to take account of all services delivering the ECCE programme – the number of ECCE places had grown by 714 places over this period - with the vacancy rate for sessional services stood in Spring 2022 standing at 37%.
Data collection for the Early Years Sector Profile 2022/23 is currently underway and will give an updated position.
689. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of new early years and childcare facilities to open in 2022; and the total number of closures in 2022. [24431/23]
View answerAs the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.
690. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total of additional 0-2-year-old baby/toddler places created in early years services in 2022, per unit. [24432/23]
View answerThe availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. My Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.
The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one important data source that allows us to monitor supply and demand. In addition to this survey data, the Department also relies on data from the register of services held by Tusla, data provided by services as part of their application for Core Funding and has also conducted several surveys with parents. Since 2020, five parent surveys have been undertaken by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of the Department.
Based on data captured through the Early Years Sector Profile Surveys 2020/22 (gathered in Spring 2021 with a response rate of 57%) and 2021/22 (gathered in Spring 2022 with a response rate of 82.5%) – extrapolated to take account of all services– the number of places for children aged 0-2 increased by 3% over this period. Data collection for the Early Years Sector Profile 2022/23 is currently underway and will give an updated position.
Separately, initial analysis of data captured though Core Funding applications shows increased capacity in high-demand areas relative to supply, including more baby and toddler places.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.
691. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of social care workers that have been promoted to social worker level in the previous five years (2018 - 2022). [24433/23]
View answerI wish to inform the Deputy that my officials have asked Tusla to respond directly to you on this matter.
