Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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687. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of community creches who rely solely on State funding. [24429/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Pobal, the scheme administrator of the childcare funding programmes on behalf of my Department, do not record data on the number of community services who rely solely on State funding.

However, estimations can be provided based on the voluntary responses to the 2021/22 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey. Approximately 101 community services indicated they rely solely on State funding in the survey.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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688. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total of additional ECCE places created in 2022. [24430/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs from September to June each year.

For the 2021/22 programme year (September 2021 – June 2022), 107,782 children were enrolled on this programme. For the current programme year (September 2022 – June 2023), there are 108,482 enrolled on this programme.

Based on data captured through the Early Years Sector Profile Surveys 2020/22 (gathered in Spring 2021 with a response rate of 57%) and 2021/22 (gathered in Spring 2022 with a response rate of 82.5%) – extrapolated to take account of all services delivering the ECCE programme – the number of ECCE places had grown by 714 places over this period - with the vacancy rate for sessional services stood in Spring 2022 standing at 37%.

Data collection for the Early Years Sector Profile 2022/23 is currently underway and will give an updated position.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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689. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of new early years and childcare facilities to open in 2022; and the total number of closures in 2022. [24431/23]

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.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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690. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total of additional 0-2-year-old baby/toddler places created in early years services in 2022, per unit. [24432/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. My Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.

The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one important data source that allows us to monitor supply and demand. In addition to this survey data, the Department also relies on data from the register of services held by Tusla, data provided by services as part of their application for Core Funding and has also conducted several surveys with parents. Since 2020, five parent surveys have been undertaken by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of the Department.

Based on data captured through the Early Years Sector Profile Surveys 2020/22 (gathered in Spring 2021 with a response rate of 57%) and 2021/22 (gathered in Spring 2022 with a response rate of 82.5%) – extrapolated to take account of all services– the number of places for children aged 0-2 increased by 3% over this period. Data collection for the Early Years Sector Profile 2022/23 is currently underway and will give an updated position.

Separately, initial analysis of data captured though Core Funding applications shows increased capacity in high-demand areas relative to supply, including more baby and toddler places.

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.