Minister Zappone to appear before Children & Youth Affairs Committee on Oberstown and Affordable Childcare Scheme

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

(i) The August 2017 Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Inspection Report on Oberstown Children Detention Campus [Minister for Children and Youth Affairs]

(ii) Update on the Affordable Childcare Scheme and related matters. [Minister for Children and Youth Affairs]

Committee Chair, Alan Farrell TD, said today, “Tomorrow the Committee will discuss HIQA’s Inspection Report on Oberstown Children Detention Campus, published in August 2017and we will also examine the Affordable Childcare Scheme and other related matters. The meeting is a valuable opportunity to engage directly with Minister Katherine Zappone on Oberstown, which was inspected by HIQA in March 2017. There were some areas of moderate or major non-compliance and those are the areas the Committee will wish to focus on. In the second part of the meeting, we will turn to the Affordable Childcare Scheme, which is aimed at helping parents to carry the financial burden of childcare costs. The means-tested element of the Scheme has not yet commenced, however, nearly 35,000 children are benefiting across a range of schemes which are designed to give effect to the means-tested element of the Scheme. Committee Members will wish to question the Minister on the issues such as ensuring that service providers do not simply increase their fees as a means of absorbing the available subsidies.”

Watch the meeting live here