Paul Murphy
Ceist:85. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if a national childcare service free at the point of use that meets the needs of all children in society will be introduced. [43218/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 22 October 2019
Ceisteanna (85)
Freagraí scríofa
First 5, the whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families published in November 2018 sets out Government's intention to develop a new Funding Model to deliver additional funding to Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare providers to ensure greater levels of affordability, quality and inclusion in their services. It is planned that the new Funding Model will operate in addition to the major funding streams for the universal pre-school Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the National Childcare Scheme when it comes into operation later this year.
An Expert Group to lead the development of a new Funding Model has been appointed and a Research Partnership will support the Expert Group with evidence and analysis as well as engagement and consultation work. A key priority for the Expert Group will be to make recommendations for a mechanism to control fee rates for different types of provision for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare. The Expert Group will hold its first meeting this month beginning a complex project that is likely to take some time to bring to fruition. Further updates will be available as the work progresses in the coming months.
The new Funding Model will be a key vehicle to achieve the vision of Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare services that are equipped to provide high-quality services for children, affordability to parents and sustainability for providers.
Budget 2020 saw a further 9.3% increase in investment in early learning and care and school-age childcare. Additional investment of €54.5m will bring annual spend to just over €628m per annum. This represents a 138% increase since 2014.
The additional investment provides for some further enhancements to the new National Childcare Scheme, including an increase in the maximum subsidised hours from September 2020 and the extension of “saver” arrangements for those in receipt of subsidies under the current schemes. The National Childcare Scheme will replace all previous targeted childcare programmes with a single, streamlined and user-friendly Scheme. In line with the principle of progressive universalism, it will provide both universal and targeted subsidies to help parents meet the cost of quality childcare.
The NCS, combined with the ECCE universal pre-school scheme, marks significant progress in making high quality and affordable childcare ore accessible to families in Ireland.