Written answers

Thursday, 27 June 2019

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Childcare Services Data

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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235. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children on a waiting list for each crèche nationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27441/19]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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My Department funds 30 City and County Childcare Committees across the country. Part of their role is to advise my Department on capacity issues. I would encourage anyone having difficulty in securing a place to make contact with their local CCC. Contact details for all of the CCCs, in addition to other information about the services they provide, may be found on www.myccc.ie.

As regards 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 the monitoring of capacity. The Early Years Sector Profile report, which was published in November and relates to the 2017/2018 programme year, indicates that existing childcare provision nationally meets current needs nationwide in terms of capacity whilst recognising that small pockets of under supply may exist within this.

Pobal reports that nationally the trend suggests a reduction in waiting lists for older children and an increase for under twos. Pobal cautions that its data on waiting lists cannot by itself be used to inform capacity decisions as parents often place their children on more than one waiting list. The table below is the latest information available taken from the Pobal report.

CountyEnrolledWaiting listVacant places
Carlow2,05726068
Cavan3,120249104
Clare4,280192383
Cork City4,246510295
Cork County14,6628691,032
Donegal6,575477882
Dublin – Dublin City16,0753,492581
Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown6,357880224
Dublin – Fingal11,1491,076450
Dublin – South Dublin9,294639373
Galway10,514571620
Kerry5,625269186
Kildare8,045350304
Kilkenny3,944414195
Laois3,69543298
Leitrim1,4376374
Limerick7,805865278
Longford1,68516859
Louth4,297238197
Mayo4,509421331
Meath6,996396355
Monaghan3,623147190
Offaly2,697123225
Roscommon2,31117298
Sligo3,14418588
Tipperary6,662372437
Waterford4,612274203
Westmeath3,781316385
Wexford5,724296281
Wicklow4,276231224
Total173,19714,5589,420

Further, I secured €8.86m in capital funding for childcare in 2019 with the ultimate aim of benefitting parents and children through improving our childcare infrastructure and capacity. A particular focus will be to expand service provision for children under three years of age.

Under the National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan published in 2018, I ensured that Childcare was identified as one of our nation's strategic priorities. I am delighted that €250 million in additional funding has been committed to for the expansion of high quality, early learning and care and school age childcare over the duration of the Plan.

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