Lone parents and working families aided by €54m hike for childcare
PARENTS will benefit from a commitment to increase funding for early learning and childcare by €54m in Budget 2020.
It is part of an extra €94m Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is allocating for the Department of Children.
Officials at the department said the extra investment meant the families of about 7,000 children would either receive subsidies for the first time, or receive increased supports.
This extra investment in the Department of Children will also see Tusla’s funding increased by more than €29m, bringing annual spending for the Child and Family Agency to €814m.
Mr Donohoe said the additional funding would support private residential and foster care. He said the increased funding would also help reduce the number of children allocated to individual social workers.
In total, the annual spend on early learning care and schoolage childcare programmes increases to more than €628m a year, a 9.3pc increase in 2020 compared with this year.
The extra investment will also support the Early Childhood Care and Education scheme (ECCE) for pre-school children and support the previously announced National Childcare Scheme (NCS), which is set to open to parents and providers on October 29.
NCS is a new statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare in Ireland. It aims to improve outcomes for children, and support lifelong learning and working families.
The Department of Children said the funding that had been secured would be of “particular benefit to lone parents and other working families”.
From September next year the maximum number of hours for NCS will increase from 40 hours per week to 45 as part of an initiative aimed at benefiting working parents of school-age children who need before and after school childcare due to commuting and work commitments.
Low income parents who are not working or studying will have their hours increased from 15 to 20.
The Government said this would promote employment and reduce poverty.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said the scheme was a “landmark moment”, making childcare more affordable and accessible.
“I am particularly pleased that from September 2020 we will be increasing the hours available to children living in disadvantage from 15 hours to 20 hours per week, ensuring that they have access to important early learning opportunities,” she said.
Opposition parties were critical of efforts made to help working families in the Budget.
Fianna Fáil public expenditure spokesman Barry Cowen said childcare projects had previously failed to deliver for working parents.
“The key test is providing quality childcare that is affordable and accessible across the country,” Mr Cowen said. “So far all we have seen is the old story of delays not delivery.”
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said childcare costs remained “eye-watering” for most families. “Low pay, high costs and revelations of substandard care on RTÉ, are the inevitable consequence of a childcare service reduced to the operations of the market,” he added.
“What is on offer today does little to make it easier.”