There are three childcare funding programmes available to parents in Ireland:

The Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) Programme - this programme gives children access to a free preschool year of appropriate curriculum-based activities in the year before they start primary school.

The Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) Programme - this programme is available through community childcare services and offers parents who are in receipt of social welfare payments a reduction in their childcare fees.

The Training & Employment Childcare (TEC) Programmes - these include the Childcare Education & Training Support (CETS) programme, the After- school Childcare (ASCC) Programme and the Community Employment Childcare (CEC) Programme. These programmes offer subsidised childcare to parents who are participating in eligible ETB or SOLAS training courses, taking up a job or increasing their days of employment or participating on a community employment (CE) course.

These programmes are funded primarily through the Department of Children & Youth Affairs (DCYA) with the ASCC Programme being funded through the Department of Social Protection (DSP).