Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2023
212. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline all the measures his Department has taken in the past two years to reduce the cost of childcare for parents; his plans to reduce these costs further for parents in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6262/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraSignificant investment has been made by my Department in the last 2 years to support parents with the costs of paying for early learning and childcare and there are a number of further measures planned in the future.
In September 2022, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare. This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families as well as stability and sustainability for providers. Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the new Core Funding scheme.
Between May and August 2022, I secured a fee freeze for the vast majority of providers through the Transition Fund to ensure parents would not be hit with increased early learning and childcare costs as the sector exited the pandemic supports and ahead of the introduction of the new funding model. 95% of providers joined the Transition Fund and committed not to increase their fees for that period. Fee Management measures continued from September 2022 underpinned with Interim Funding and Core Funding contracts.
Core Funding, which began in September 2022, is the new funding stream worth €259 million in full year costs. Core Funding allows for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector, related both to pay and non-pay costs, without additional costs being passed on to parents. Participation in Core Funding means that fees cannot increase above September 2021 levels for Partner Services. Core Funding also requires Partner Services to offer the NCS and/or ECCE to all eligible parents to ensure that parents can avail of their full entitlement to subsidised provision. The combination of the fee freeze plus access to increased subsidies ensures improved affordability for parents which is particularly important in the context of rising prices for goods and services across the economy. To date, 94% of services are signed up to Core Funding, ensuring that the fee management measures impacts very widely.
The introduction of fee management is one of the recommendations of the Expert Group in their report, Partnership for the Public Good. The fee freeze for the first year of Core Funding is the first step in this few management process and will be further developed in future years as more information about income and costs in the sector is analysed.
In addition to the core funding model, significant enhancements which have been made to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) which have improved availability and affordability for parents.
- Previously, the scheme deducted hours spent in preschool or school from the applicants overall award under the income assessed subsidy. In May 2022, I announced the removal of this practice allowing applicants to use their full entitlement to subsidised hours for early learning and childcare.
- In September 2022, I also extended the universal subsidy of the NCS to include all children under 15 years of age.
- In October 2022 I announced additional funding of €121 million for the NCS to increase the universal subsidy from €0.50 per hour to €1.40 per hour. This measure aims to reduce the weekly childcare bill of families by 25% on average.
Currently most childminders are excluded from participation in the National Childcare Scheme, as a result of their legal exemption from Tusla-registration set out in the Child Care Act 1991. In April 2021, I published the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028, which sets out a phased, incremental pathway for non-relative childminders to come into the scope of regulation, supports and subsidies.
In line with the National Action Plan for Childminding, in January this year I received approval for proposals to amend the Child Care Act to change the legal status of childminders. This change will make possible the future regulation of childminders and allow for access to the National Childcare Scheme to be opened in future to parents who use non-relative childminders, reducing the cost of early learning and childcare for those parents. I intend to open the National Childcare Scheme to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity, though it will be necessary first to develop and introduce childminder-specific regulations, and to give childminders adequate time and support to meet regulatory requirements.
Additionally, The end of 3 year review of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) will commence at the end of 2023. The review will examine how effectively the NCS is operating, whether it is meeting the policy objectives and if further changes are needed.
