Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2026
185. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if his Department has engaged with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality to develop mechanisms through the tax system to help lower the cost of childcare for families with childminders working in the family home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10072/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government acknowledges the cost pressures on parents with young children. In recognition of these pressures, several support measures are already in place to ease the burden on working parents. These include various tax-exempted financial supports provided by the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to assist parents to offset the costs of early learning and childcare. These include:
• Income received by childminders who provide child-minding services in their own home may claim Childcare Services Relief which provides an exemption from income tax on that child-minding income, provided that they do not receive more than €15,000 income per annum from child-minding.
• A Single Person Child Carer tax credit of €1,900 is available as well as an additional standard rate band of €4,000. Subject to meeting the relevant conditions, this credit and increased rate band is payable to a single person with a child under 18 years of age or if over 18 years of age in full time education or permanently incapacitated. The primary claimant may relinquish this credit and increase in the rate band to a secondary claimant with whom the child resides for not less than 100 days in the year.
• The Accelerated Capital Allowances scheme for Childcare Services which was introduced to encourage employers to develop childcare facilities onsite for their employees.
In relation to the introduction of a further tax relief for parents with childminders working in the family home, such proposals for tax expenditure measures must be assessed in accordance with my Department's Tax Expenditure Guidelines. These make clear that any policy proposal which involves tax expenditures should only occur in limited circumstances where there are demonstrable market failures and where a tax-based incentive is more efficient than a direct expenditure intervention.
