Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2023
619. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason ECCE providers are paid according to daily attendance, in contrast to the Department of Education system where primary and secondary schools are subvented and teachers paid irrespective of classroom attendance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26173/23]
View answerAll children meeting the minimum age requirement of 2 years and 8 months are eligible for two full programme years on the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The ECCE programme is offered for 3 hours per day, up to 5 days per week.
ECCE is not a mandatory programme and it is parental choice whether a child attends full time, part time or not at all. A parent/guardian may choose to avail of, for example, only 4 days of ECCE per week. This would mean that their child attends for 12 hours of free early learning and care under the ECCE programme. It would be an inappropriate use of public funds to pay a subvention of the full amount of 15 hours a week to a provider only providing a service of 12 hours a week in this scenario.
Service Providers must keep daily attendance records for each child attending and records must include the child’s full name, date of attendance, time of child’s arrival and time of child’s departure. Where attendance differs from registration in a consistent pattern over a four week period, registrations must be updated to reflect the actual pattern of attendance. An update on the Early Years Hive (the online registration system) must occur immediately after the four weeks of the reduced attendance pattern commencing.
In exceptional circumstances, for example, serious illness, the service provider may apply to retain a child's registration beyond four weeks up to a maximum of twelve weeks.
