Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 October 2025
398. Deputy Marie Sherlock asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reason parents have to renew their NCS eligibility every eight weeks; and the plans she has to lengthen this period. [52808/25]
View answerTo confirm, subsidies awarded under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) typically last 12 months. Every NCS award has an end-date which is clearly stated on the award. Applicants must renew their application before this end-date if they wish to continue receiving a subsidy for their child. If they do not renew, the award will expire and the subsidy payment will stop at the end date i.e. the service provider will no longer receive payments towards the cost of the child's place.
What the Deputy may be referring to is the Scheme's under-attendance rules, which have been designed in recognition that there are many reasons why a child's attendance may occasionally be less than their agreed hours. This may be, for example, due to a parent being able to collect their child earlier than usual or illness. However, this does not impact a child's eligibility nor is there a need to renew an award.
To explain, where a child attends fewer than their agreed hours for a consecutive eight week period, a warning will issue to parents alerting them to the situation. At this point, if the child attends their agreed hours for a full week then no further action is taken and the cycle resets.
It is only the under-attendance continues for a further four weeks (i.e. 12 weeks under-attendance total) then the number of subsidised hours awarded under the Scheme will be revised. The hours are revised to reflect the average number of hours that were actually attended by the child over the previous 12-week period. These rules strike a fair and appropriate balance between flexibility for families' everyday lives while at the same time taking the necessary steps to protect State finances.
To reiterate, once the under-attendance is broken by one full week of attendance within this cycle, the subsidy is unchanged and parents need not take any further action. Subsidies are only reduced if a child is continuously under-attending or not using the agreed hours for a period of 12 consecutive weeks.
Finally, it may also be of interest to note that early learning and childcare providers can round up part hours of daily attendance to the next whole hour (once still within the service's operating hours). This means that if a child attends 4 hours and 1 minute (or more), it is recorded as 5 hours of attendance for that day.
