The National Childcare Scheme is a national scheme of financial support for parents towards the cost of their childcare. The Scheme includes two types of subsidies towards the cost of quality childcare:

1. a universal subsidy is payable for children between the ages of 24 weeks and 36 months who are using childcare services with an approved childcare service provider. It is also payable for a child who is older than 36 months but does not yet qualify for the Early Childhood Care and Education programme. The universal subsidy is not means-tested and is available to all qualifying families of any income level. The universal subsidy will be made available to all families with children up to the age of 15 years from September 2022.

2. an income-related subsidy is payable for children from 24 weeks to 15 years of age who are using childcare services with an approved childcare service provider. The level of subsidy is determined by the family’s reckonable income (i.e. gross income minus tax and other deductibles and minus any applicable multiple child discount- see chapter 4). The income-related subsidy is payable for qualifying families where the family’s annual reckonable income is up to a maximum of €60,000.

A person can apply for the subsidy online at www.ncs.gov.ie or by post. Where they qualify, they will be provided with a unique code, called a CHICK (Childcare Identifier Code Key) which they can take to any registered childcare service provider participating in the Scheme. Once the parent and the provider have agreed the hours of childcare required, the provider will register the code on the Scheme’s online system in order to redeem the subsidy. As part of redeeming the subsidy, the provider will enter the hours of childcare to be subsidised. The parent will be asked to confirm these hours and the subsidy can then be directly paid to the provider on the parent’s behalf. No payment will be made until parental approval is confirmed.