299. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the full-year cost of increasing the NCS universal subsidy so that a family pays no more than €200 per child for the maximum hours, for children up to five years, ten years, and 15 years. [43761/24]

The Deputy has requested the cost of increasing the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) Universal Subsidy so that a family pays no more than €200 per child for the maximum hours which is 45 hours per week. It is assumed that Deputy is referring to a monthly cost of no more than €200 per child.

Due to the design of the NCS and its consideration for education stage rather than age, it is not feasible for the Department to split the costs between children up to five years old, ten years old and fifteen years old. Instead, the below response splits the costs into end of preschool, primary school and post primary. This better aligns with the nature of early learning and childcare provision and regulation.

The NCS Universal Subsidy is available to all families with children under 15 years old. This subsidy is not means tested and provides €2.14 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week.

This Department does not hold individualised fee data for parents as these are local agreements between parents and providers; instead a reduction in the average cost of ELC to parents is examined. To estimate these costs, data from Pobal on average weekly fees across the country was used. Assuming a 45-hour week for all children, an hourly universal subsidy of €3.36 was derived to achieve the desired outcome.

As these costings is based on an average fee, the impact of this change would vary based on the level of fees within the services, patterns of usage and age of the child. The below estimates has been costed as such that all children in the relevant age ranges will have their costs reduced to at least €200 per month, in some cases the reduction will be greater.

The ESRI SWITCH model was then used to estimate the quantum of these changes and applied to the Departments baseline cost of the NCS. To split the costs between different education stages, data on cost of children availing of NCS in preschool, primary school and post primary was used to generate a proportionate cost for these groups compared to overall NCS costs. The results are given in the below table:

This estimate comes with a number of caveats, from September 2024 a number of enhancements were made to the NCS, the estimates factor in these changes:

1. Increase in universal subsidy from €1.40 to €2.14.

2. Extension of NCS to families availing of childminders

3. Increase in NCS sponsor subsidy to €5.30 per hour for all children over the age of 1.

The impact of these changes are yet to be determined and carry a risk of altering the above costings due to increased participation of childminders for example. As such extensions to the scheme are based on estimates.

It should be noted also that increasing funding for certain groups (i.e. up to end of preschool) has the potential to create funding issues for families, those transitioning to primary school would experience significant funding cliffs.

In addition, this costing is made on the basis of a static system; that is, the model assumes that the level of usage of eligible ELC does not increase or decrease but remains static. Any changes to subsidies may create a change in behaviour of families, for example, return to/increased labour force participation and use of formal ELC for the first time.