Mr. Kevin McCarthy:

On the early years aspect, there has been very considerable investment in early years. There have been historic levels of investment. The 2028 target under First 5 was achieved four years ahead of schedule, facilitated by Government investment. The national childcare scheme now has 167,000 unique children benefiting from the subsidies available under the scheme and 106,000 children are participating in ECCE, the early years education programme, which is massively beneficial, as everybody appreciates, in its developmental impact for every child.

As for pressure on places, there are services with vacant places. Approximately half of services, or 51%, have vacant places. Equally, just under half of services have waiting lists and those pressures tend to be more in urban locations. Considerable work is being done around trying to develop capacity in the system through the new capital programmes, such as building blocks grants programmes, which are there to facilitate investment in extensions or new services. There will be a number of strands of that as we go. Within the Department we have established a new supply management unit to allow us to get a better handle on future supply requirements and to plan better and work with childcare providers and committees to plan for future investments in capacity in the sector. The huge investment in early years has created choice for parents and a facility for them to avail of subsidised early learning and childcare places that did not exist before. That advance in affordability for parents is materialising in demand. We are seeing some of the pressures that brings on the system but it is a very welcome pressure because it is a reflection of the fact that parents now have the opportunity, which did not exist previously, to access affordable childcare.