Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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598. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the sources of capital funding available to a local group seeking to develop a facility to host an all-day service, a preschool and post school service in an area in which no formal service exists and which is adjacent to the existing national school. [25382/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has, since 2015, administered an annual capital funding programme, under which early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) service providers are invited to apply for capital funding for new builds, to increase capacity and to maintain and improve their services.

The capital strands are made available to achieve the strategic priorities as determined by my Department, having regard to the funding available, and developed using analysis of the current state of the childcare sector, learnings from previous capital programmes and feedback and input from stakeholders, including childcare providers and Pobal.

I am pleased to say my Department will run a capital programme in 2021, details of which will issue to all services later in the year.

My Department funds 30 City and County Childcare Committees (CCC’s) across the country. Anyone considering opening an early learning and care or school aged childcare service should contact their local CCC who will offer assistance in this regard.

The CCC’s also offer advice and support to parents on accessing both centre based care and home based options, such as childminders. The contact details for all CCCs can be found on www.myccc.ie