Childcare providers participating in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) are in contract with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to deliver the pre-school year free of charge to qualifying children enrolled in their service.
It is a condition of this contract that any deposit paid by a parent to a childcare provider to secure a place under the ECCE programme, where the child continues to avail of the service, must be refunded to the parent by the end of October in the year the child was enrolled.
Parents should in the first instance raise this matter with the childcare provider.