Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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592. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she is taking to address the considerable shortages in ECCE places that exist in certain parts of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50454/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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My Department has conducted an analysis of ECCE capacity and is satisfied that there will be no shortfall in ECCE places for the 2017/2018 programme year.

It should be noted that the peak number of children attending ECCE in 2016/2017 was just over 120,000. The 2017/2018 numbers are expected (and on track) to be in line with 2016/2017 uptake. Further, from September 2018, the ECCE Programme will revert to one single entry point in a given ECCE Programme Year (i.e. September) with eligible children entitled to two full years of ECCE provision. From September 2018, the number of ECCE enrolments in any given year will be around 114,000. The fact that 120,000 children were provided with ECCE places in April 2017 suggests that there is sufficient capacity to deal with the lower, be it all year round, number of 114,000.

As with the previous expansion of the ECCE programme, my Department is working closing with all of the City and County Childcare Committees to monitor a range of scheme related issues, including capacity. In the event that capacity issues emerge, we will seek to address these accordingly.

Recent media statements on this issue cited the total number of children aged 3-5 in the population and concluded that there was a capacity issue for ECCE. This did not account for the many 4 and 5 year olds already in primary school, nor those who opt for only one year of the ECCE Programme. The conclusion that a capacity issue exists is therefore inaccurate.

One of the measures I took in 2016, and again in 2017, was to support capital development. My Department provided €8.4million for its 2017 Early Years Capital funding programme and €4m for the 2016 Early Years Capital Funding Programme. The 2017 funding was made available to providers under three strands, the largest of which (€4.2m) went towards enabling services to provide additional childcare places. I will be announcing details of the 2018 Capital scheme in the very near future.