Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1334. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if consideration could be given for funding from the recently announced 'Building Blocks - Capacity Grant' for a project where Government funding previously announced has been revoked (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56697/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The funding the Deputy is referring to relates to a grant agreement between the organisation and the Irish Refugee Protection Programme which expired in December 2021.

In relation to Building Block grants, some €69 million has been allocated over the period 2023-2025 to the early learning and childcare sector under the revised National Development Plan (NDP). This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare across three pillars:

1. Building Blocks - Improvement Grant
2. Building Blocks - Capacity grant
3. Building Blocks - Innovation Grant

Some €45 million has been set aside under Pillar 2 for early learning and childcare capital projects over 2024 and 2025. On 7 December, I announced details of the Building Blocks - Capacity Grant scheme which is aimed at addressing capacity gaps, where most needed. The scheme will be broken into two strands.

Under the first strand, €15m will be made available from early 2024 to providers to fund renovations and upgrades of existing premises to cater for more children. Under the second strand, funding will be made available to providers later in 2024 to commence larger-scale expansion projects for completion in 2025. Total funding available for this scheme will be €20m. Both strands are open to services that have signed up to Core Funding. My Department is undertaking a detailed needs analysis which will ensure that the funding is targeted towards communities with identified under-supply and categories of need.