Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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559. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if increased childcare supports will be rolled out to new mothers who are unable to return to work and are therefore down an entire salary due to the reduced number of childcare places amid the Covid-19 pandemic. [28884/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The reopening of the early learning and care and school-age childcare sector and the resumption of services has been positive to date.

By 5 October 4, 473 (99% of all services) has signed a funding agreement with my Department to operate a childcare funding scheme, and scheme and child registrations for ECCE, NCS, CCS and TEC are higher than the same period last year.

The HSPC published public health guidance for childcare setting on managing Covid in May 2020, and updated this guidance in July. There is no required capacity reduction owing to Covid, and services are able to comply with this public health advice with no or little reduction in numbers of places.

Covid has not, to date, resulted in higher numbers of childcare services closing permanently. Between January and end of August 2020 130 services notified Tulsa of their permanent closure. This compares to 133 service closures for the same period in 2019. Tusla have reported that 53 new services have opened this year to date, compared to 56 by the same time last year. The overall capacity of the childcare sector has grown by approximately 60% over the last 5 years and the average service size has grown from 33 in 2014, to 47 in 2019.

My Department funds a national network of County Childcare Committees who will advise parents on the childcare options available in their communities. Contact details for each CCC can be found on www.myccc.ie.