Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
852. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children getting support under the universal childcare payment of €1.40 per hour; and their distribution, by age, and by average weekly hours claimed. [40346/23]
View answerThe National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support to help families with their early learning and childcare costs. There are two types of subsidies available for children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years of age:- A universal subsidy which is not means tested and provides €1.40 per hour, for a maximum of 45 hours per week;- an income assessed subsidy which is means tested and will be calculated based on a family’s individual circumstances.
A total of 83,340 unique children have benefited from the NCS universal subsidy year to date in 2023. The breakdown of average hours claimed by age is in the table below.
|
Age (years) |
Less than 15 hours |
15 to less than 20 hours |
20 to less than 30 hours |
30 to less than 45 hours |
45 hours |
Total unique children |
|
0 |
122 |
263 |
697 |
1,761 |
2,972 |
5,815 |
|
1 |
800 |
843 |
1,656 |
3,643 |
4,802 |
11,744 |
|
2 |
2,397 |
1,285 |
2,083 |
6,304 |
1,331 |
13,400 |
|
3 |
3,072 |
1,171 |
2,830 |
5,334 |
172 |
12,579 |
|
4 |
3,041 |
1,281 |
2,817 |
3,632 |
131 |
10,902 |
|
5 |
3,308 |
1,342 |
2,320 |
859 |
54 |
7,883 |
|
6 |
3,160 |
1,098 |
1,679 |
533 |
39 |
6,509 |
|
7 |
2,668 |
789 |
961 |
291 |
32 |
4,741 |
|
8 |
2,199 |
561 |
695 |
175 |
19 |
3,649 |
|
9 |
1,710 |
400 |
477 |
125 |
14 |
2,726 |
|
10 |
1,213 |
266 |
232 |
70 |
10 |
1,791 |
|
11 |
770 |
151 |
151 |
51 |
5 |
1,128 |
|
12 |
319 |
50 |
56 |
16 |
2 |
443 |
|
13 |
18 |
5 |
2 |
25 |
||
|
14 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
||
|
Total |
24,800 |
9,500 |
16,660 |
22,797 |
9,583 |
83,340 |
