Childcare

[Brendan Burgess]

Early years funding from 345 to €465m in2017

€35 m for the targeted

A new affordable childcare scheme from Sept 2017 for 6 months to 15(?) years

A new one immediately for younger children - not means tested

Tusla registered creche and individuals

€86m for f

 

[boe]

Anywhere I can get some more information on this?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

From Paschal Donohue's speech

http://www.budget.gov.ie/Budgets/2017/EstimateStatement.aspx

Childcare

The Government is clear on the benefits of higher quality and more affordable childcare.

It is good for children, good for families and good for our economy.

In light of the value that Government attaches to further supporting the development of affordable childcare in Ireland, Early Years funding will rise from €345m in 2016 to €465m in 2017, an increase of 35 per cent.

This increase in funding allows for an additional €35 million to support the provision of both universal and targeted services for the care, development and wellbeing of children and young people.

This includes the introduction of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme from September 2017, which will provide both means-tested subsidies, based on parental income, for children between 6 months and 15 years and universal subsidies for all children aged 6 months to 3 years.

These subsidies will be paid for children and young people attending a Tusla registered childcare provider – including centre based providers and child minders.

Taken together, these initiatives represent a major step forward in the provision of childcare.

In addition to the childcare package, €86m extra has been provided in respect of the full year costs of the extended Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme, the free pre-school scheme, and the roll out of the Access and Inclusion Model, or AIM, to enable children with disabilities to participate in pre-school education.

 

[circle]

Dept of Children and Youth Affairs release - I note the universal subsidy actually extends from 6 months to whenever the child qualifies for the 'free' preschool scheme, which can be 41 months depending on their birthday:


There's some more detail on the universal subsidy in the Irish Times:
"All families, no matter what their income levels, will be entitled to as much as €900 a year, if the child is in 40 hours per week of childcare. The payment will apply on a pro-rata basis of a State subsidy of 50 cent an hour of childcare. This will be paid directly to the childcare provider. This would mean a child in care for 40 hours a week would receive an €80 subsidy a month."

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/poli...re-payment-to-be-unveiled-in-budget-1.2824542

 

[Society]

Does anyone know if they extended the ecce scheme from 38 weeks to 52 weeks in the budget?

 

[circle]

They didn't - there was 7 days of funding added to the ECCE scheme for providers, for use to address the admin overhead of running the scheme or for training purposes but not for children. I believe some providers, who focus on the ECCE scheme and don't have many full-time chldren, have to make staff temporarily redundant for the summer months, so this may help with that.

 

[Society]

What's to stop a creche putting up their prices in sept 2017 and thus cancelling out the universal benefit of 900 Euro for parents?

 

[Society]

Anyone know how this scheme will operate. If your net income in the preceding year of starting creche is below net 51k (with 2 children)due to taking unpaid leave after maternity leave but usually above 51k net otherwise could u avail of the increased subsidy of more than 80 euro per child?