Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 March 2026
271. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the supports that exist for families who, through no fault of their own, are unable to access a national childcare service participating service. [22534/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is designed to improve affordability for parents through the provision of subsidies for children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years of age. Presently, 4,376 early learning and childcare services are in contract to deliver the Scheme – a 10% increase on the previous year. Participation in the NCS is optional but it remains open to all Tusla-registered early learning and childcare providers, including childminders, subject to their agreement of the terms and conditions of the NCS Funding Agreement.
While the Department cannot oblige providers to participate in schemes, significant efforts have been made to improve the NCS for services by reducing the administrative burden on providers and simplifying processes. Additionally, it’s worth noting that providers who contract to Core Funding and must offer the NCS and/or ECCE programme receive funding to assist with delivery costs, including those relating to administrative staff and time.
The Department funds 30 City/County Childcare Committees (CCCs), which provide support and assist families with early learning, and childcare matters. The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees (CCC) across the country are in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places. Once a CHICK is awarded, families can choose any childcare provider participating in the NCS. The CCCs are best positioned to assist families in sourcing an alternative place, if required.
First 5 is Ireland’s Whole-of-Government Strategy for babies, young children and their families. It has a pivotal focus on providing a broader range of options for parents to balance working and caring. The First 5 Implementation Plan (2023-2025) set out additional measures that will allow parents to spend the whole of their baby’s first year in the home through a combination of paid family leave schemes by 2028. This included increasing Parent’s Leave and Benefit for both fathers and mothers to nine weeks in August 2024. The combined duration of Maternity, Paternity and Parent’s Leave and Benefit now equates to 46 weeks’ leave for a two-parent family.
All paid, non-relative childminders who work in their own homes can now register with Tusla and access the National Childcare Scheme. The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 set out a pathway for the extension of regulation to childminders. The childminding-specific Regulations, which came into effect in September 2024, are designed to be proportionate and appropriate to the home and family setting in which childminders work. A key objective of the National Action Plan for Childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to also benefit from State subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme. The Childcare Support Act 2018, which provides the statutory basis for the National Childcare Scheme, specifies that the Scheme is only open to Tusla-registered providers. This ensures that public funding is provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision.
We are now in a 3-year transition period, to September 2027, during which childminders are being encouraged and supported to register, but registration is not yet mandatory. This phased approach aims to facilitate the largest possible number of childminders to enter the regulated sector, the sphere of quality assurance, and access to Government subsidies, while recognising the time and supports required for childminders to learn about and prepare for registration. Supports are available for childminders at local level through the City and County Childcare Committees. Each City and County Childcare Committee employs a Childminding Development Officer, who provides a range of supports to local childminders, including the short pre-registration training course.
As of end-January 2026, 162 childminders were registered with Tusla, the number of childminders currently in contract for the National Childcare Scheme with a least one active registration for the current programme year to date (as of 20.03.2026) is 128. Meaning there are 34 registered childminders that are not yet in contract for the NCS based on figures available to us.
The Phase 1 report of Shaping the Future: the Early Years Action Plan was published on 17th December. The report sets out the next steps in the delivery of a number of Programme for Government commitments relating to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC). Two central objectives of Shaping the Future are to reduce parental fees to an upper limit of €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government and to increase the supply of places, strengthening supply-side funding to support services’ sustainability and staff wages, while introducing State-led facilities to complement other measures to increase capacity.
The Phase 1 report focuses on short-term actions to be undertaken in 2026 within the budgetary resources available for the year. In line with the Programme for Government commitment, a broad public consultation process is currently underway. Results of this consultation, as well as additional analysis, will inform Phase 2 of the Action Plan. Phase 2 actions will be published later in 2026 and will be undertaken from 2027 through to the end of 2029.
