Department of Children and Youth Affairs Childcare Funding Programmes

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) operates six government programmes; ECCE, CCSP, CCSR, CCSR(T), TEC and NCS.  Below is a short summary of each, for further detail click on the relevant subtabs.

1. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): This programme is a universal childcare programme otherwise known as ‘free pre-school’;
2. Community Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP): This programme provides childcare funding support targeting low income families in private childcare services and community childcare services;
   o Universal Subsidy (CCSU): As part of its plan to make childcare more affordable, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs introduced a universal subvention payment from September 2017, the payment of which is facilitated through the CCSP childcare programme.
3. Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement (CSSR): This programme provides childcare support to Programme Refugees to support their resettlement and integration
   into Irish society;
4. Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement (Transitional) (CSSR(T)): As part of the “Rebuilding Ireland – an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness” the DCYA has provided access to free childcare for children of families experiencing homelessness; and
5. Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) Programmes: These programmes provide childcare funding support for parents participating in eligible ETB/Solas vocational training courses, Community Employment (CE) programmes or returning to
   employment.
6. The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) opened in 2019 and will replace all previous targeted childcare programmes with a single streamlined and user-friendly Scheme to help parents meet the cost of quality childcare

For more information on these programmes, please click here.