Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 May 2022
297. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of funding that was allocated to early years sector; and the amount of this allocation that was drawn down to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, in tabular form. [27057/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraFrom the onset of Covid-19, my Department and the State more broadly put in place a range of supports for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare (ELC/SAC) services. The objective of these supports were to:
- support providers’ sustainability to enable services return to normal once restrictions were lifted;
- support providers to retain their staff;
- ensure that ELC/SAC could reopen and remain open, even at very low levels of occupancy;
- ensure that ELC/SAC could operate safely for children, families and staff;
- ensure that increased costs associated with public health requirements, and lower demand/occupancy were not passed on to parents; achieve administrative efficiency through the continued use of existing funding schemes and other whole of economy supports; and
- protect exchequer investment.
Supports in 2020 included:
- The Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (6 April – 28 June 2020); which was layered on top of the Revenue Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and provided a top-up for wages of eligible early learning and care and school-age childcare staff and a further payment to be used towards ongoing/non-deferrable operational costs such as rent, insurance and ICT.
- The Reopening Funding Package, (29 June – 23 August 2020), which included a once-off Reopening Support Payment (RSP), a once-off Covid-19 capital grant.
The table below shows the ELC/SAC 2020 allocations and the amounts drawn down for the ELC/SAC sector across DCEDIY subsidy schemes and Covid-19 supports.
|
Scheme |
Allocation |
Net Expenditure |
|
Covid-19 TWSCS |
€77.3m |
€52.4m |
|
Covid-19 Reopening Support Payment |
€18m |
€13.1m |
|
Covid-19 Capital |
€14.2m |
€13m |
|
Sustainability Support Funds |
€2.2m |
€0.8m |
In 2021, the Department provided supports under the Covid-19 Operating Support Payment, as follows:
|
Scheme |
Allocation |
Expenditure |
|
Covid-19 Operating Support Scheme |
€12m |
€11.98m |
