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Early Childhood Care and Education Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 October 2019

Thursday, 24 October 2019

Ceisteanna (273)

Anne Rabbitte

Ceist:

273. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost of increasing the number of hours available under the ECCE scheme each week by five, ten, 15 and 20 hours, respectively. [43952/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

€297m has been allocated for the Early Childhood Care and Education programme in 2020.

There are currently a maximum of 15 hours per week available on the ECCE scheme. The following table outlines the annual cost of increasing the number of hours available per week in 2020 by the specified hourly increments:

ECCE Capitation Costs

 

Annual Cost (m)

Increase (m)

No change

€297

 

5 hour increase

€396

€99

10 hour increase

€495

€198

15 hour increase

€594

€297

20 hour increase

€693

€396

Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) funding is linked to ECCE capitation. Subsequently, any increase in durations for the ECCE programme will also have an impact on AIM expenditure.

Initial estimates indicate that, in 2020, AIM level 7 will cost circa €26m and AIM level 1 will cost circa €5.4m. The two levels combined are therefore forecast to cost €31.4m.

The table below captures the projected impact of the outlined ECCE hour increases on the allocation for AIM Levels 1 & 7 in 2020.

Associated AIM costs

Proposed change

Annual Cost (€m)

Increase (€m)

No change

€31.4

 

5 hour increase

€41.9

€10.5  

10 hour increase

€52.3

€20.9

15 hour increase

€62.8

€31.4

20 hour increase

€73.3

€41.9

Please note, that for the purposes of this PQ, the estimates have been prepared by extrapolating simply  from current hourly costs/rates. Additional hours in ECCE or AIM might result in some critical mass efficiencies and hence reduced costs, or indeed, extra costs such as for the provision of meals. A more detailed costing exercise would be required to prepare further estimates for any future policy development.

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