Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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742. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of childcare facilities which indicated their closure in 2020; the comparison with 2018 and 2019; a breakdown of counties in which closures are taking place; the number of places lost; the counties in which new facilities are opening; the number of planned places in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19122/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In line with the requirements of the Child Care Act 1991 (as amended by Part 12 of the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013), those wishing to operate an early years service (whether an early learning and care service or a school-age childcare service) are required to register with Tusla, which is the statutory regulator of early years services. Each year a number of early years services also decide to close of their own volition. Where an early years service closes, they are required, in line with these statutory provisions, to notify Tusla of their planned closure.

All data collected by Tusla including information relating to new applications for registration and reported service cessations is collated and verified on a quarterly basis.

The number of closures reported to Tusla in 2018 was 138 and in 2019 was 196. The number of reported closures so far in 2020, broken down by county for Q1 and Q2 2020, is as follows:

The number of new applications for registration, broken down by county, for Q1 and Q2 2020 is as follows:

Finally, I have been advised by Tusla that they do not systematically record or collate information in relation to the numbers of individual childcare places available per registered service and are therefore not in a position to provide the Deputy with the requested figures. Where such data is collected on inspection, that is primarily for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the prescribed adult-child ratios as set out in the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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743. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the level of demand for crèche places in September 2020; the estimated number of children not returning to crèches in September; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19123/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Officials in my Department have been monitoring closely developments in relation to early learning and care (ELC) and school age childcare (SAC) sectoral capacity, including the supply of, and demand for, places as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Supporting services as they reopen, and ensuring that capacity is sufficient to meet demand, is a key priority of my Department.

The Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2019 demonstrated that, prior to the disruption caused by COVID-19, the sector was running at near capacity.  Expert guidance on the safe reopening of ELC and SAC services during the COVID-19 pandemic was published by the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on 29 May. The guidance recommends, amongst other measures, the use of a “play pod” model to restrict interactions between closed groups of children and adults as an alternative to social distancing, on the basis that social distancing is not possible between young children. The public health advice does not require any change to minimum adult-child ratios or to regulatory space requirements. While some settings may reduce capacity depending on their layout, there are no absolute requirements for capacity reduction, and most services should be able to comply with the public health advice with no or little reduction in capacity.

While it is difficult to predict with certainty the number of children returning to these services, it is anticipated that enrolment in the ECCE Programme may reach an average of 85%-90% of the eligible cohort, while demand for fulltime and part time ELC and SAC could average 60% initially.

Data from wave 2 of a survey of parents conducted on behalf of my Department by IPSOS MRBI from June 19 to July 10 found that 61% of parents using centre-based ELC and SAC services pre-COVID-19 plan to return their children to these services. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points from Wave 1 of this survey, collected from May 22-24, suggesting that confidence is growing among parents.

The latest package of measures to support the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector to operate from September recognises that a reduced number of children are likely to attend ELC and SAC services - at least initially. This funding package is tailored to allow providers to operate with potentially less parental income and to assist in meeting the increased costs associated with complying with public health requirements in a lower occupancy scenario.

The funding package for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) sector from 24 August to end 2020 includes:

- Continuation of all DCYA ELC and SAC subsidy schemes (NCS, CCSP, TEC) and resumption of the ECCE Programme at existing capitation and subsidy rates, including ECCE Higher Capitation.

- Access to the Revenue-operated EWSS. This will cover an average of 38% of the costs of individual services.

- A sustainability fund will be accessible to providers (not-for-profit and for-profit) who can demonstrate that the other measures are not sufficient by themselves to enable viable operation of their business.

The continued financial support will benefit parents as well as providers as providers will not need to pass on increased costs to parents through increased fees.

A key policy priority for the Department in this process is the sustainability of the ELC and SAC sector and hence it has and continues to work intensively to support services to reopen after COVID-19. The reopening funding aims to support providers to reopen, staff to remain in the sector, parents to resume work, and children to benefit from quality ELC and SAC.

The latest data shows that 85% of services that ordinarily operate in July and August have now reopened.

76% of the 4500 services normally open in September have already applied for a reopening grant, and as the closing date for application is August 28, I expect this figure to increase significantly in the coming weeks.