Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 October 2023
164. Deputy Michael Lowry asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason a child was removed from the NCS scheme without a parent's knowledge or consent (details supplied); if he will review what additional recourse is now available to this child's parent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44505/23]
View answerWhile the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is an initiative of my Department, a Scheme Administrator has been engaged to manage the daily operations of the NCS on behalf of the Department. Pobal act in this capacity as Scheme Administrator and it is their role to follow up on individual cases.
It is within the rules of the NCS that subsidies can only be paid once an application is successfully completed, a Childcare Identifier Code Key (CHICK) has been registered with a childcare provider and the parent has confirmed on the system that all details of the registration are correct. It is a key aspect of the Scheme that all claims are paid in arrears based on the attendance of a child. As such, the child must be registered with a childcare provider specifically for the NCS, and the provider must confirm that attendance on the NCS portal. Subsidies cannot be paid for a time before this point.
The Scheme Administrator advises that in this case it appears that while the parent did create an application for the named child it was manually ended by the parent on the parent portal on 10/11/2022. A notification was issued to the parent on 10/11/2022 informing them that the award N008-767-01 for the child queried had been end-dated. The system shows this notification was opened on the same day it was issued.
The applicant created a second application (C013-869), but did not include the child queried in the new application. An applicant can only have one application per household, so when the new application was completed for the additional children then it retired the application in question (N008-767), thus ending the CHICK code for the child queried. The subsidy for the child queried ended on 13/11/2022 and was not added into the new application (C013-869) until 02/08/2023.
In summary, as the CHICK for the child queried had been end-dated and they were not added to the new application until 02/08/2023 no subsidy would have been provided for the child queried during the time 13/11/2022 and 07/08/2023. This is because the child queried was not listed on an active application during this time and did not have an active CHICK.
In terms of backdating, it is not possible to submit registrations for a date in the past. The subsidy can only be paid from the point of registration of the new award with the childcare provider. These measures ensure that public funding is safeguarded and that the investment is following the child.
An appeal must be made within 30 working days of the date of notice of the review decision. In this case the applicant has until the 19th of October 2023 to submit an appeal.
A person who considers that they have been unfairly treated in relation to the Scheme may make a complaint to the Ombudsman. A person may choose to refer a complaint to the Ombudsman notwithstanding that an appeal has been made in relation to a particular matter.
Should the parent require any further assistance, or advice, the local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) remains available. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.
