Need an explanation of free childcare options in the Republic

[Lagirl20]

Planning on moving to Galway soon and trying to get my head around free childcare options.
I've searched online and as far as I can see, I’d be entitled to 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks of the year, and this isn’t means tested. It’s very different to the current UK system we use. Is it definitely not income related? Could I use my hours across three days instead of five, is it flexible in this way? E.g. 15 hours spread over 3 days.
does tax free childcare exist, are there any other schemes I should know about to reduce childcare costs? GRMA 😊

That is the ECCE free preschool scheme you are referring to, it's not income based but the child must be 3+ in the calender year of the Sept they want to start eg if you want them to start this Sept they must have turned 3 by Dec 2024.
Parental funding scheme is the National Childcare Scheme, their website will explain it but basically there's 3 strands. Universal which anyone can apply for and it's a set rate, Income assessed for those on lower/average wages which pays a specific amount of money/hours to the provider and sponsorship for which you need to be referred to by external agency like Social Services and you pay no fees.
If you are looking at this September you will need to start contacting services immediately, most preschool services will already be full but creches ie fullday services may have some ECCE only spaces as the ratio is higher for that 3 HR session 1:11 compared to 1:8 for rest of the day

It sounds like you are talking about the ECCE scheme. This is not a childcare scheme as such it’s a preschool scheme. It last for two years. Child starts preschool in the September of the year they turn 3. ECCE scheme is not means tested at all.

Generally preschools will offer a morning session or afternoon session and the term times are similar to the primary school year. So they have Midterm, Christmas , Easter, summer holidays off. It’s meant as a 5 day week scheme.

One of mine is going to be three this year so will be entitled to his ECCE. I however need full time childcare therefore 9am-12pm will be covered by the ECCE scheme and I have to pay for the rest of the hours.

No tax credits. Childcare is subsidised for everyone, but low income families get more of a subsidy than other family’s. I don’t know if you can claim a subsidy straight away when you move here though.

Thanks so much both for this info! Much appreciated

Like the others have said the ecce scheme is free preschool which is available to every child so not really childcare. My daughters was 8.45 to 11.45. She went to a stand alone preschool so it just opened for those hours. My eldest went to crèche as I was working so our overall weekly cost was reduced as the preschool hours were deducted from it but Easter and Summer holidays aren't covered so you need to be sure that wherever you choose is open and will be able to take your DC during that time if you are working and need childcare. Crèche places are almost impossible to get at the moment so best of luck with it all.

It’s a few years since my kids were in preschool but back then you were not allowed spread the hours over fewer days - it had to be three hours a day, five days a week. If the child wasn’t in preschool five days you lost the free hours for that day.

That is correct, the service will be registered for a specific 15 hrs spread over 5 days for ECCE.
For fulltime childcare depending where you are it's often v difficult to get a place for less than 5 days

And if this happens regularly (not attending a full week) you will lose your place

FYi The eligibility age is 2 years 8 months on 1 September, it was 3 previously. The ratio is still 1:11. There was a lot of anger when this changed, the difference between these few months can be very significant. I work in ECCE and if we have more than 1 child at the youngest age it really impacts the class. It's quite strictly 3 hours only, we are in a stand alone building used for an after school club and there is no facility for late pick ups. Another difference is we don't have changing facilities so if a child isnt trained they cant start. Sometimes we allow a child in pull ups on the arrangement that if they soil themselves the parents have to come to collect immediately. It completely goes against the inclusion policies IMO.

Availability is just pot luck, we had 3 spaces unfilled last year, booked solid for next year.

I know the same amount per child, around 70 euro a week is also paid by Gov to full time children for the same hours (15 a week x 38 weeks) but I don't know how its done.

I think the government pays that money to the childcare business, who deduct it from the parent's bill. So €200 a week - €70 govt subsidy for 15 hours= parents pay €130 per week (figures made up for illustrative purposes!)