National Childcare Scheme  (NCS)

 

On this page you’ll find information on the National Childcare Scheme which is offered to support parents of young children. For more details please call us on (087 2995387)and we will be happy to assist you.
 

With effect from 24 August 2020, all childcare subsidy schemes are being moved onto the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), except for the ECCE preschool scheme.

 

ECCE Preschool Scheme

If your child was born between 1st Jan 2022 and 31 December 2022, they will qualify for the ECCE preschool scheme (year 1) from September 2024. This scheme provides for a subsidy of €2,622 per annum based on 5 days per week care (€69 over 38 weeks).  In order to register children for the scheme, The Curragh Montessori will require your child’s full name, pps number and date of birth.

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National Childcare Scheme (NCS)

If The Curragh Montessori have any availability after the ECCE places are filled for the year, children aged from 2 years and 6 months to 2 years and 8 months (who are just outside the qualifying age range for the ECCE) may apply for a place in the preschool. As these will be fee paying places (as opposed to the ECCE places which are free to qualifying children), parents may apply for the NCS scheme in order to avail of some childcare fee subsidies.

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How to apply for NCS:

The easiest and fastest way to apply is online at https://ncs.gov.ie/en/

You will need:

• A verified MyGovID account*

• Your children’s information such as date of birth and PPSN

• Your/your par employment and income related details for income assessed subsidy if the household net income is under €60,000. Otherwise you should apply for the Universal subsidy

• Your partner’s PPSN, employment and income related details (if you are a member of a couple)

*  To obtain this you need a basic MyGovID account and a Public Service Card with a verified mobile phone number.  For full instructions, please go to https://www.ncs.gov.ie/en/how-to-apply/

If you or your partner don’t already have a Public Services Card you will need to apply by post. To do so, please contact the Parent Support Centre on 01 906 8530, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. These applications will take longer to process and may affect the start date of the subsidy payment.

When your application has been approved, you will receive an NCS award for each child, containing their unique CHICK key (Childcare Identifier Code Key) and details of rate & number of eligible hours €1.40 per hour from (January 2023). You will need to share the CHICK key with us so that we can register your child on the NCS portal (called HIVE) and enter the number of hours that your child attends – with us it is a maximum of 3 hours per day.

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After you receive your CHICK key please give this CHICK code to Mary at The Curragh Montessori.

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After The Curragh Montessori registers your child and their hours, you will receive a notification from the government’s HIVE registration system asking you to confirm that the details entered are correct. Once you send your confirmation, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will pay the subsidy to us on your behalf, and we will, in turn, subtract this amount from your monthly fee. If you do not validate our registration on the HIVE Portal we cannot deduct the subsidy from your fees.

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If you would like to know more about how you might avail of a childcare place under any of these government schemes, please contact us at (087) 2995387 or email us at mccann.mary4@gmail.com and we will be happy to assist you.

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