Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We had a useful visit to a number of providers in the Deputy's constituency. We were in King's Island and we saw the benefits of early learning and care for young children, in particular from vulnerable areas. We spoke about the additional supports that new funding like the core funding can provide to those services. We know this year that a number of services have registered with Tusla to say they will be expanding their offering come this September. That is important because we want core funding to be in a position to deliver additional places. The Deputy is correct that availability is an issue. Core funding will go some way to improving the availability of services, but we also need to look to the capital programme that my Department is bringing forward. We received funding of €70 million under the national development plan, NDP, to bring forward capital funding and some of that will go on increasing capacity. There is also work in terms of local authority planning guidelines when large developments are made to ensure that the required childcare facilities are delivered. We know that they are not always delivered even though they are often a requirement of planning permission granted.

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