Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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531. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount that will be allocated to the capital grant scheme for childcare providers. [48945/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In Budget 2019 I secured €8.68m in base-line capital expenditure for early years and school age childcare programmes, representing an increase of €2m on the 2018 capital programme.

While the specifics of the 2019 capital programme are still under discussion between officials in my department and colleagues in Pobal, it is expected that there will be a focus on building capacity and quality as well as other capital initiatives to support the transition to the Affordable Childcare Scheme.

Once this process is completed, an announcement will issue to childcare providers in the coming weeks to inform them of the general guidelines for the programmes, as well as a timeline for their delivery.