Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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570. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of childcare services in Cork city and county in each of the past five years in tabular form. [22674/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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571. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of childcare services in Cork city and county which have permanently closed down in each of the past five years in tabular form. [22675/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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572. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of childcare places in Cork city and county broken down by age category, including after-school places and excluding after-school places in each of the past five years in tabular form; and the number of baby places in baby rooms in the same period. [22676/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare that is affordable and accessible is a key Government priority.

Since 2015, significant increases in State investment in early learning and childcare has given rise to a substantial growth in the numbers of children participating in these services. More than 100,000 children now participate on the universal pre-school programme on an annual basis and the National Childcare Scheme subsidises up to 80,000 children.

To ensure that the supply of early learning and childcare places meets demand, my Department has, since 2015, funded the creation of more than 27,000 new places through an Annual Capital Programme.

Before the onset of Covid-19, national data indicated that, on the whole, supply of early learning and childcare places was meeting demand, with evidence of undersupply for certain age groups including children under 3, and in certain areas.

Data gathered throughout the Covid-19 pandemic revealed lower demand for early learning and childcare, and reduced occupancy among early learning and childcare services. Indeed, data captured in June 2021 found significant vacancy rates across the country – with the national vacancy rate averaging at 21% and the vacancy rates in Cork city and Cork County in June 2021 29% and 24% respectively.

The data provided below has been taken from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile surveys and extrapolated using the County response rates. The figures for 2019/20 were not available.

Please note that the 2020/21 figures therefore carry higher margins of errors due to extrapolation based on reduced response rates. Therefore, some of the age groups are grouped together in order to mitigate for that.

Table1 Cork City Capacity

Table2 Cork County Capacity

My Department is continuing to monitor early learning and childcare capacity, with a particular focus on monitoring Covid-19 impacts as public health restrictions have been lifted and responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.

Pobal has commenced the new data collection as of 4 April 2022, as part of the Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey. This will allow for updated information on capacity among early learning and childcare services to be established.

In addition to these efforts to monitor capacity issues across the country, my Department is planning a range of steps to address any issue of under supply. A new funding model, to roll out in September, will provide funding for services aligned to costs of delivery so, for example, greater funding will be available to services that cater for younger children where costs of delivery are higher than older children. Some €70m has been allocated to my Department through the revised National Development Plan (NDP) – with the majority of this funding earmarked for new places. Another important step being taken by my Department, in partnership with the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government (DHPLG), is to update the 2001 Planning Guidelines for Local Authorities on Early Learning and Childcare Settings. In addition, CCC are currently proactively engaging with early learning and childcare services to identify unused capacity and explore the potential for services in increase capacity where there is evidence of unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.

Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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573. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the case of a person (details supplied) will be examined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22758/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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While the NCS is an initiative of my Department, a Scheme Administrator has been engaged to manage the daily operations of the NCS on behalf of DCEDIY. Pobal act in this capacity as Scheme Administrator and it is their role to follow up on individual cases.

I do appreciate the difficulty of the applicant's position and the significant value that NCS subsidies can have in a family’s finances. However, NCS subsidies can only paid once an application is completed, a valid CHICK is registered with a childcare provider and the parent confirms on the system that all details are correct. This is a key financial governance measure that ensures that public funding is safeguarded and that the investment is following the child.

I appreciate that this may not be the desired response but I do hope that this clarifies the matter.