Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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42. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made in providing the 60,000 child care places that the Government committed to by April 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40177/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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My Department has worked intensively on the expansion of the Early Childhood Care and Education scheme, which began in September of this year. As the Deputy mentions my Department projects that the expanded ECCE scheme will have a peak enrolment of 127,000 children in the April-June session in 2017. This is an increase of 60,000 children from the pre-expansion volume.

In anticipation of the increased demand for places in the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme for 2016/17, we introduced a number of measures to assist Early Years providers and ensure sufficient capacity. For example, I provided capital funding of €4m to services throughout the country to increase capacity, a fund that was later increased to €6.5m, allowing all applications that met the criteria for grant funding to be approved. This capital scheme has already provided several thousand new places, and this number will increase as works are completed. A further €4.5 million has been made in Budget 2017 for Capital expenditure and I will bring formal proposals in this regard as soon as possible.

We have encouraged ECCE Room Leaders to improve their qualifications via targeted Learner Funds, while also widening access to Higher Capitation payments for the 2016/17 preschool year.

My Department has worked closely with Childcare Committees Ireland (CCI) to analyse demand for places on a geographic basis, to identify any shortages in provision, and to work intensively with services in areas where shortfalls might have been expected to occur. CCI has indicated to my Department that sufficient places should exist for the January intake and CCI is now analysing the April capacity. My Department will continue to actively monitor and manage the situation to ensure sufficient capacity is available in 2017.