Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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499. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his advice for parents who are required by their employer to return to office-based work in cases in which they have no childcare given that the after-school service is currently not resuming; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43293/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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School-age childcare services are permitted to operate in line with the latest public health guidance for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector.

Before the onset of Covid-19, data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile Survey showed that the supply of SAC places was broadly meeting demand, with evidence of pockets of undersupply in certain areas. Owing to the comprehensive supports provided to the sector since the onset of Covid-19, including the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme, Government has succeeded in sustaining this sector throughout the pandemic while enabling these services to comply with public health guidance – with data on ELC and SAC services that have closed and opened in 2020 and 2021, very similar to the data for 2019.

With the number of ELC and SAC services in the sector broadly comparable with pre-Covid-19 levels and lower demand for SAC since the onset of Covid-19 as reported by SAC providers – owing primarily to changes to working arrangement, this would suggest that parental demand for SAC places can be met.

Any parents/guardians currently having difficulty in accessing an SAC place should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for support.