Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Zappone, for being in the Chamber to take this Topical Issue matter.

My constituency of Dublin Mid-West, very much like the neighbouring constituency of the Minister, Dublin South-West, has a growing population. Its population has increased by more than 5% between the censuses in 2011 and 2016. Moreover, very significant construction activity is finally beginning to take place. There is also an increase in the number of people back at work but unfortunately, too many of them are in precarious or low-paid work. They are, nonetheless, back at work and all of this means a growing demand for childcare.

Currently in Dublin Mid-West, there is significant new construction in Adamstown, Newcastle, Rathcoole and Clondalkin. I am getting increasing numbers of representations from working families, often where both parents are working, who find it a real struggle to even get access to childcare, let alone to afford it. Many of our community-run childcare facilities are at capacity, certainly in their morning sessions, and are almost at full capacity in the afternoons. There was one unfortunate case recently, which is ongoing, of a private sector operator and the service provider changed following a competitive tender. The new service provider discovered that in fact the service they had inherited had more children in it than recommended by the Tusla guidelines. As a consequence, the new provider is now restricting some of the service to meet the Tusla guidelines. This has highly negative consequences for parents with the withdrawal of collections, drop-offs and so on. This speaks to a very high level of demand and unfortunately not an adequate level of supply.

I am aware that these pressures exist in many parts of the country but Dublin Mid-West is unique in that it has two strategic development zones. I believe we are the only constituency in the State that has those, with anything as much as 6,000 to 7,000 additional accommodation units to be provided in Adamstown over the coming years. The Clonburris strategic development zone, following An Bord Pleanála's determination, could have between 8,000 and 11,000 units of accommodation over the next decade. Kilcarbery, a council site and a joint venture in Clondalkin will have more than 1,000 units. Only yesterday at its full council meeting, South Dublin County Council announced a significant increase in potential accommodation units in Rathcoole. Many of those units will start to be built next year or the year after that. While we have a very low level of community childcare provision - only 10% of the quantum available - whether it is the community end or the private end, it cannot happen or develop without the active support of the Minister and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Today I am interested to hear what the Minister has to say, albeit not on the overall State-wide figures, because I have seen some of those in replies to parliamentary questions. What can the Minister tell Deputies from Dublin Mid-West and to the parents who make representations to us? As our community expands, I welcome affordable, social housing and appropriately-priced private housing to meet the existing and future needs of our community. What is being done by the Minister, her Department and her officials and what will they do to work with community providers, private providers, the local authority and other networks in Dublin Mid-West to ensure the current unmet need will be met? As our community and constituency grows, what will be the future Government investments in childcare strategies to meet the needs of the growing population, including a growing population of working families with children?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Ó Broin for raising this issue. I will restrict my comments to the questions relating to my Ministry, although I heard the Deputy raise some other issues there also.

To provide some context for this discussion I will start by stating that I have been fortunate to secure an unprecedented increase of 117% in investment for early learning and care and school age childcare in recent budgets. This extra investment has supported a doubling of capacity in the sector. It is clear, however, that further capacity is required and that is why I am continuing my intensive efforts in this area.

One of the priorities for my Department’s capital programme is supporting childcare providers to extend their existing services, or to establish new services, where need or demand exists. The decision on where to target capital spending to support policy aims is informed by an analysis of the current state of the childcare sector, by learnings from previous capital programmes and by feedback and input from stakeholders, including childcare providers and data from Pobal and other sources.

With regard to the specific areas mentioned by the Deputy, while my Department’s capital programmes do not routinely target one specific geographic area over any other, the assessment of capital applications has regard to issues of need supported by the use of specialised assessment tools, including Pobal’s geosparcity index. This is considered the fairest mechanism to meet the needs of all areas having regard to the available funds. All applications are appraised in a fair and impartial manner and solely on the basis of the quality of their application.

My Department’s 2019 early years capital scheme has a primary focus on building places for the under-threes. I have made €4 million available for this age group, which is expected to result in 1,321 new places for the zero to three age group being created. An additional €1 million has been made available for the creation of 2,308 new school age places.

On childminding, I was delighted to secure €500,000 in budget 2019 to recruit a national childminding co-ordinator and a team of six development officers in the State, to support the registration of more childminders with Tusla, and thus enable them access subsidies under the national childcare scheme. My Department will publish a childminding action plan in the coming months to follow through on the commitments in the First 5 strategy and the programme for Government to further develop the childminding sector.

With capacity issues more generally, each year Pobal conducts research on behalf of my Department to examine a number of factors related to childcare services in Ireland, including capacity. The latest early years sector profile report, based on a survey completed in May 2018, outlines a 4% vacancy rate as a percentage of children enrolled in Dublin. Pobal reports that nationally, the trend for waiting lists suggests a reduction in waiting lists for older children and an increase for under-twos. Pobal cautions that its data on waiting lists cannot be used on their own to inform capacity decisions, as parents often place their children on more than one waiting list.

Finally, if the Deputy is aware of any specific cases of parents - and he may have identified one or two - who are having difficulty accessing childcare places, they could make contact with their local city or county childcare committee, which will be pleased to assist them.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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If I was any one of the parents who raised these matters on a regular basis with constituency Deputies, the first thing I would ask after the Minister's intervention would be what does it mean for the particular area to which this question pertains. My Topical Issue matter is very specifically focused on the Dublin Mid-West constituency.

It strikes me that while the capital sums are welcome, they are very small in the context of the level of demand. While the way in which the State assists the provision of childcare, through capital and current expenditure, is not the same as education, at least the Department of Education and Skills proactively undertakes assessments of existing need and future population projections. That Department looks at a whole range of elements such as city and county development plans, planning permissions, strategic development zones and so on. On that basis the Department of Education and Skills is able to make strategic decisions about the targeting of limited resources in order that the resources go to the areas on a proportional basis to meet that need. I do not have anything close to the level of expertise as does the Minister on how this works but from the Minister's response, this is not the way the current allocation of resources takes place.

7 o’clock

While people who apply must demonstrate a level of need, it does not necessarily mean that if there is a greater level of need in certain geographical areas, the people there can access a proportionately greater sum from the funds. I stress again that I accept absolutely that childcare is an issue in every part of the State. However, in two strategic development zones in Dublin Mid-West, up to 20,000 additional public, affordable and private housing units are to be provided over the coming decade. We are already hearing from community and private providers that they are at capacity. I will forward to the Minister privately details of the instance in which we actually had overcapacity, presumably because a childcare provider tried to meet a need, albeit in very difficult circumstances. What I would like to hear in the Minister's short response, given what she has said about the position across the State, is what she can say to reassure Deputies and, crucially, parents in my constituency of Dublin Mid-West that her efforts in the coming weeks and months will produce increased provision which is so desperately needed?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In his initial presentation and in his subsequent intervention, I heard the Deputy make the point that he has concerns about current capacity in his constituency as well as outlining the implications for future capacity of plans to expand housing, etc. To look a bit more at current capacity and unmet needs, one of the ways the Department gets its information, which is perhaps different from the Department of Education and Skills, on which I take the Deputy's point and at which I will look, has to do with the city or county childcare committees. It is the childcare committees that are in touch with local childcare providers. I am keen to avoid having an area in which there is a significant level of unmet need even currently. That is what I usually say and if there is a real problem, the providers should go to the childcare committees. If the Deputy has specific concerns, he can come directly to me. My Department has been fairly good at trying to be responsive and flexible in finding ways to provide support. The Deputy must accept at the same time that the physical capacity for expansion must exist in terms of capital, and I tried to answer some of those questions, as well as the capacity among providers, with reference to which we assess the quality. While future needs are an issue as well, some of the issues with current capacity relate to the amount of money that is available to respond. That money is limited although it is growing. That gets to the Deputy's question about the future. It is really important to identify those zones that are coming up and the incredible increase in capacity that will be needed. We are aware of that. One of things I did not mention in the initial reply was that we had secured in the NDP funding commitment from 2023 to 2028 a significant amount of €250 million. We will follow a similar course in determining future needs to the one we have followed before.