Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 June 2017
1921. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her Department's estimated hourly running cost for the early childhood care and education scheme and the hourly running cost of early years care for those under three years of age in services for both cohorts of children. [27385/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe capitation rates paid by my Department for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme are €64.50 per week for the standard capitation and €75 per week for the higher capitation. These payments provide for 15 hours per week of early childhood care and education. The hourly running costs for the Programme are therefore €4.30 per hour at standard rate and €5 per hour at higher rate.
The hourly running costs of early years services were estimated as part of the preparation of the 2016 policy paper on the Affordable Childcare Scheme. These estimates were prepared on the basis of the data available at that time. It was estimated that the average hourly running cost was €4.67 per child per hour. Given the variation in required adult-child ratios by the age of the child, this figure translated into estimated hourly running costs of €4.76 per hour for 2 year olds, €5.37 per hour for 1 year olds, and €7.81 per hour for children less than 1 year old. Running costs for children over 3 years old were estimated to be lower.
The policy paper noted that these hourly running costs differ from the implicit hourly cost of the ECCE Programme as the ECCE capitation rates reflect the different adult-child ratio (1:11) permitted for sessional pre-school services as well as the incentivisation of graduate employment within the ECCE Programme.
My Department will shortly be commissioning an independent review of the cost of delivering quality childcare, which will provide up-to-date and more comprehensive information in relation to the costs of delivering early years care and education.
