Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 January 2023
518. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to the practice of requesting non-refundable monetary deposits in exchange for places in crèche services; if his Department has put in place any conditions to prevent this practice from occurring; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4036/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraSupporting parents in bringing down the cost of Early Learning & Care and School-Aged Childcare is a core ambition of the Government and of mine as Minister. To that end, the Deputy will be aware that, owing to the significant investment made available by the Government for providers over two successive Budgets, from 2 January of this year the cost of childcare has fallen for thousands of parents participating in the National Childcare Scheme. It is my aim to reduce this cost further.
With regard to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP) Saver programme, my Department allows for the collection of deposits by early learning and care providers however these deposits are subject to certain conditions.
For ECCE, a provider may only charge a refundable booking deposit to hold an ECCE place for a child. The maximum deposit a provider may charge is equivalent to four weeks ECCE payment, however, the deposit must be returned to the parent/guardian once the child’s ECCE registration is approved.
For CCSP, the maximum deposit a provider may charge is equivalent to two weeks’ payment. The full amount of the CCSP subvention held on deposit must be refunded to the parent/guardian once the child’s registration is approved.
It is also a condition of the new Core Funding scheme that deposits to secure early learning and care places must be refundable, which extends the requirement to do so beyond services participating in ECCE and CCSP. The Funding Agreement clause states: The Partner Service agrees that they will not charge any non-refundable deposits to parents/guardians in the respect of their ELC/SAC service where the parent/guardian takes up the service for which the deposit was paid.
