Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 May 2024
89. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children accessing early childhood education and school age childcare on the NCS sponsorship subsidy; if he will provide a breakdown of same by county, in tabular form; and if he will provide a breakdown of same by way of percentage of those in community and private services. [21917/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Sponsorship arrangement available under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) makes special provision for vulnerable children.
The NCS Sponsorship arrangement allows designated bodies to refer children to the Scheme where early learning and care is needed on child welfare, protection, family support or other specified grounds. Where a referral is made by a Sponsor body, the family will automatically qualify for a subsidy without having to satisfy the Scheme’s eligibility, income or enhanced hours requirements. The Scheme will pay the full cost of the early learning and care for families referred to the Scheme by a Sponsor Body.
As of 22 April, the total number of unique children benefitting from NCS Sponsorship arrangements is 4,830. A breakdown of this figure according to county is as follows:
|
Provider County |
Number of children |
|
Carlow |
137 |
|
Cavan |
155 |
|
Clare |
55 |
|
Cork |
316 |
|
Donegal |
69 |
|
Dublin |
1,820 |
|
Galway |
150 |
|
Kerry |
200 |
|
Kildare |
102 |
|
Kilkenny |
172 |
|
Laois |
96 |
|
Leitrim |
9 |
|
Limerick |
412 |
|
Longford |
25 |
|
Louth |
104 |
|
Mayo |
58 |
|
Meath |
57 |
|
Monaghan |
46 |
|
Offaly |
9 |
|
Roscommon |
56 |
|
Sligo |
59 |
|
Tipperary |
180 |
|
Waterford |
87 |
|
Westmeath |
42 |
|
Wexford |
151 |
|
Wicklow |
265 |
The majority of children availing of NCS Sponsorship attend Community services. A detailed breakdown is as follows:
|
Organisation Type |
Number of children |
% children |
|
Community |
2,971 |
62% |
|
Private |
1,864 |
39% |
|
Total unique children |
4,830 |
100% |
Finally, in terms of methodology, please note that a child may attend more than one service. These services may be in different counties, or different organising types (i.e. community or private) - for this reason a child may appear in the counts for multiple counties or organisation types. However, the child will only appear once for the total . For this reason, the sum of the number of children in all counties/organisation types may be greater than the total number of unique children.
