Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for children. I thank Senator Currie for raising this important issue and for offering me the opportunity to respond. Ensuring access to high-quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for the Government. Various data sources provide evidence that the supply of early learning and childcare is increasing in terms of the number of services opening and the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering.Sector profile data shows an 8% increase in enrolments nationally between 2022 and 2023, with increases in enrolments in the Dublin area ranging from 5% in Fingal to 14% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown for the same period. Data from core funding shows an increase of 3% in the number of hours of provision being delivered between September 2022 and September 2023, with capacity increases of approximately 6% to be funded through core funding from this coming September. Tusla registration data from 2023 shows the largest increase in early learning and childcare services in a number of years. There has been a smaller number of closures and a net increase of 129 in the overall number of services nationally. A growth trend has been observed in the first five months of 2024. Specifically, the data from Tusla on the numbers of closures and new services opening from the end of May 2024 shows that so far in 2024 there has been a net increase of seven early learning services such as crèches and preschools and 24 stand-alone school-age childcare services across the country. According to this Tusla data, over the period January to May 2024 four early learning and care services opened in Dublin and three closed, while five stand-alone school-age childcare services opened in Dublin and none closed.

The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, acknowledges that some parents continue to have difficulty in finding places for their children, in part due to the progress that has been achieved in respect of affordability with the introduction of the fee freeze through core funding and the expansion of the national childcare scheme. To this end, his Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare is aligned with demand, with work in this area led by the new supply management unit he established earlier this year. In addition to the significant growth in capacity that has been funded through the core funding scheme, core funding has improved the stability and sustainability of funding to providers. The funding available through core funding has increased each year since the scheme was first introduced and will reach €331 million for year three of the scheme, with every provider in contract for the scheme expected to benefit from significant increases in funding from September 2024.

As well as core funding, special supports are available from the Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about its viability. This support, accessed through local city and county childcare committees, can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flows, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances. I encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty that would like to avail of support to contact its city and county childcare committees to access case management supports. Contact details can be found at www.myccc.ie. What the Minister is saying is that there has been an increase in overall services and we have put in a substantial amount of money and that will continue to increase.