I propose to take Questions Nos. 176 to 178, inclusive, together.
In order to support the sustainability of the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector (ELC and SAC) the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) launched the Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (TWSCS) as a supplement to the Revenue operated Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).
The TWSCS provided funding towards a portion of childcare services staff wages and overhead costs. Financial support under the TWSCS was allocated to childcare providers taking into account the number of staff employed in their service irrespective of whether staff were deployed by the employer to work on the ECCE or NCS programmes.
The TWSCS operated from the 6th April 2020 for a period of 12 weeks and over the course of this period financial support was allocated to 3,900 childcare services that signed up to and submitted applications to the TWSCS.
€77m was initially estimated and made available through the TWSCS. Following an application process, financial Support of approximately €53m has been provided to childcare services for the 2020 scheme. The scheme did not run in 2021 as the same conditions and associated need did not arise; that is full closure of services. This was allocated as follows:
Employee salary top up
|
€30.4m
|
Overhead payments
|
€23.6m
|
Total
|
€53m
|
It is not possible to disaggregate by scheme as it is a matter for the provider to manage and deploy staff according to their own business need and regulatory requirements.