Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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560. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding her Department provided to each community child care committee in each year since 2008; and the various functions for which this funding was provided. [3312/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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33 City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) were established in 2001 to advance the provision of childcare facilities in their local areas. They comprise local representatives from the statutory, community and voluntary sectors, childcare providers and parents. There are now 30 CCCs, as Limerick City and Limerick County CCCs have amalgamated, as have Waterford City and Waterford County and North and South Tipperary. Each committee has a distinct legal identity and board of directors. City and County Childcare Committees receive funding from my Department for the operations of the Committee, allowing each one to employ staff and implement actions contained in its strategic plan, which is approved by my Department to reflect national policy objectives. Pobal acts as managing agent on behalf of the Department in relation to the performance of individual CCCs. Pobal appraises and monitors the local planning and implementation of activities and outcomes of each CCC associated with my Department's funding, and supports CCCs individually and collectively.

The CCCs support the delivery of the childcare programmes operated by my Department: the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme, the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) Programme and the Training and Employment Childcare (TEC) Programme. CCCs perform a range of activities to promote the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) including providing information and support for parents and ECCE settings. They are also responsible for rolling out the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training programme to pre-school practitioners nationwide. They provide support and guidance to local service providers and parents in relation to the childcare programmes and support quality in keeping with national frameworks and policy objectives. CCCs are also available to co-ordinate and provide training to providers and offer support to families with regard to Early Years services within their respective catchment areas.

The information requested by the Deputy is outlined in the table. This table outlines the core funding allocated annually to each CCC from 2008 to 2018. To note that my Department also provides additional annual funding to the CCCs to support a number of initiatives including the administration of the Childminding Development Grant, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), and  the Parent and Toddler Initiative.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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561. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount of capital funding that was awarded to child care facilities in each county under strand 1, 2 and 3 of the capital funding scheme, respectively. [3313/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In 2017, Early Years Capital funding was made available to childcare providers in a competitive process under three distinct strands.

Early Years Capital Strand 1 comprised individual grants up to a total value of €50,000 for the creation of new childcare places. To date the total amount of capital funding allocated under this strand nationally is  €4,297,743 making up 91 separate grants.

Early Years Capital Strand 2 comprised individual grants up to a total value of €20,000 for the essential maintenance and repair of community childcare services. To date the total amount of capital funding allocated under this strand is € 2,128,589, making up 131 separate grants.

Early Years Capital Strand 3 provided individual grants up to a total value of €5,000 for the creation of natural outdoor play areas. To date the total amount of capital funding allocated under this strand is €2,135,752, making up 463 separate grants.

Please see attached breakdown of Early Years capital funding allocated by county and by strand per county.