Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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631. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will address a matters raised in correspondence (details supplied) in relation to the childcare scheme age for crèches; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52088/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department does not directly provide after school childcare, but my Department does provide a range of supports for any body who wishes to set up an early learning and childcare or after school childcare service.

Any school which wants to set up an after-school service, and which registers with Tulsa, will be able to access the National Childcare Scheme funding which may reduce the cost of after-school care to parents. Schools may establish such as service themselves, or may provide premises to a Tusla registered provider to deliver after-school care on the school premises. Schools can get support from their local County Childcare Committee (CCC) for information and support on establishing or hosting an after-school service. Details of the CCCs can be found on www.myccc.ie.

In previous years my Department has provided an annual capital grant programme for early learning and childcare providers, which provided funding for areas such as improving outdoor facilities or expanding the number of places available. This annual funding will be replaced with significantly increased investment under the National Development Plan (NDP) during the period 2022-2030.

NDP capital funding allocated to early learning and school age childcare will be used to increase the stock of early learning and school age childcare infrastructure, in order to address capacity challenges including the undersupply for certain types of provision and in specific areas of the country.

My Department is currently developing proposals for the allocation of NDP funding to the early learning and school age childcare sector, and these will be announced in the coming months.