December 12, 2024
News

Kilkenny parents quick to avail of new National Childcare Scheme

There has been a huge uptake by Kilkenny parents for the new state scheme that provides early-learning and childcare support.

A total of 175 Kilkenny families have already been approved for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) just three weeks after applications to the scheme opened. A further 94 families are awaiting confirmation on whether their application has been successful or not.

Kilkenny’s Junior Minister John Paul Phelan is encouraging all parents in the county to apply. The NCS is a subsidy which assists parents with the cost of early learning, early childcare and assistance for school-age children. The financial support can be used with any participating Tusla registered childcare service.

More than 8,000 awards have been issued nationwide in the three weeks the scheme has been opened and Minister Phelan says more people will be eligible for the scheme in 2020.

“Under the National Childcare Scheme, families will be supported to meet the cost of quality early learning and care and school-age childcare through a system of universal and income-related subsidies.

“Additional funding provided under Budget 2019 ensures that an estimated 7,500 additional children will benefit from the scheme, with over 40,000 other children, already eligible, seeing increases to their subsidies.

“Income based subsidies are available to families with reckonable household incomes of up to €60,000 which can translate into as much as over €90,000 gross for families in certain specific circumstances,” Minister Phelan said.

The NCS is replacing the existing targeted childcare programmes with a single, streamlined and more user-friendly scheme.

 

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