Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

38. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to increase childcare places; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26082/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department is progressing a range of actions to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare is aligned with demand, with work in this area led by a new Supply Management Unit that I established earlier this year.

A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop a planning function for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of the supply and demand - akin to the Forward Planning Unit in the Department of Education.

The Unit will also oversee the administration of capital investment under the National Development Plan, through the Building Blocks Capacity Grant. The primary focus of the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Schemes is to increase capacity in the 1-3 year old, pre-ECCE, age range for full day or part-time care. I hope to announce details of the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme in the coming weeks.

Additionally, my Department is currently engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to examine and review the 2001 Planning Guidelines for Local Authorities on Early Learning and Childcare Settings with a view to updating them.

The Department of Education published procedures on the use of school properties and sports facilities outside of school hours to highlight the value of school infrastructure being used to deliver early learning and childcare and school age childcare services. These procedures outline steps necessary to consider school facilities for other activities beyond their core function and to maximise their use for local communities. It is positive to see the Department of Education encourage this type of use of school buildings, particularly for early learning and childcare and school age childcare services, and to provide support to schools to make these spaces available. Currently 15% of early learning and care and school age childcare services are delivered on school premises and I hope that this can be further developed.

Other work across my Department will also contribute to increasing the numbers of places.

Core Funding, which began 2022, has proven to be effective in expanding capacity. Year 2 of the scheme provided for capacity growth of 3%, which has materialised and for Year 3 of the scheme, additional funding will be directed towards a further 5.6% increase in capacity growth.

In addition, under the National Action Plan for Childminding, I have committed to opening up access to the National Childcare Scheme to parents who use childminders following the extension of regulation to childminders this autumn. This will increase the numbers of funded and regulated early learning and childcare places available.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

39. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will establish a publicly owned childcare service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26083/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Reform of the early learning and childcare sector is a commitment in the Programme for Government, bringing together the best of community and private provision, and the development of a new funding model, to achieve Government's objectives of affordable, accessible and high-quality services.

An Expert Group was established in September 2019 to develop this funding model. Under their terms of reference, the Expert Group was asked to propose how to further achieve policy objectives including affordability, accessibility and quality in a privately-operated system through increased public funding and public management.

In December 2021, Government approved the 25 recommendations contained in the Expert Group report, Partnership for the Public Good. The recommendations were accepted in full by Government and implementation of this new funding model is well underway, backed by recorded levels of State investment that will exceed €1.1 billion this year. This extra investment has allowed us to cut costs for parents, increase pay for childcare professionals and to improve income for service providers.

Of the 25 recommendations, three are grouped under the title 'Role of the State'. In particular, the final recommendation states that, “[I]n the medium term, the Minister should mandate the Department to examine whether some element of public provision should be introduced alongside private provision.”

In January 2024, I established a new Supply Management Unit in my Department. Part of its remit, in addition to undertaking more detailed analysis of supply and demand in the sector and administering capital funding programmes under the National Development Plan, will be to begin an exploration of public provision as called for in Recommendation 25.

This work will commence later this year.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

41. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline the response to his call for capital support for new childcare places; and his plans for the longer-term expansion of the sector. [26054/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Capital funding through the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Scheme consists of two strands of funding over 2024 and 2025.

The deadline for the first strand, the Building Blocks Expansion Scheme, has now closed. Under this strand, capital funding for projects valued at between €50,000 and €100,000 is being provided for the renovation or reconfiguration of existing services to deliver additional capacity, particularly for children aged under 3. I hope to announce the list of successful applicants shortly.

I also intend to announce details of the significantly larger Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme in the coming weeks. Under this strand, grants ranging from €100,000 to €650,000 will be made available to early learning and childcare providers to physically extend their services to deliver additional capacity, again with a focus on places children aged under 3.

In addition to the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Scheme, the new Supply Management Unit in my Department is leading on other actions this year to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare is aligned with demand, including through the updating of planning guidelines for early learning and childcare, in partnership with the Department of Housing.

The work of this Unit will be informed by a planning function for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of the supply and demand which is under development and akin to the Forward Planning Unit in the Department of Education.

The work of this Unit is also being complemented by enhancements to the Core Funding Scheme, through which funding will be allocated to support capacity growth for the third year consecutive year of the scheme, with a 5.6% increase in capacity projected from September.

The Department of Education published procedures on the use of school properties and sports facilities outside of school hours to highlight the value of school infrastructure being used to deliver early learning and childcare and school age childcare services. These procedures outline steps necessary to consider school facilities for other activities beyond their core function and to maximise their use for local communities. It is positive to see the Department of Education encourage this type of use of school buildings, particularly for early learning and childcare and school age childcare services, and to provide support to schools to make these spaces available. Currently 15% of early learning and care and school age childcare services are delivered on school premises and I hope that this can be further developed.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

42. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the extent to which he is satisfied regarding the availability of childcare facilities given the increasing necessity for both parents to be at work and to meet the requirements of one-parent families; the ongoing work being undertaken to improve provisions in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26053/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Ensuring access to quality, affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government. Various data sources provide evidence that the supply of early learning and childcare is increasing.

Sector profile data shows an increase in enrolments nationally of 8% between 2022 and 2023 with a similar increase in enrolments in Kildare for the same period.

Data from Core Funding shows an increase in 3% in the number of hours of provision being delivered between September 2022 and September 2023 with capacity increases of 5.6% to be funded from this coming September.

Tusla registration data from 2023 shows the largest increase in new early learning and childcare services in a number of years, a smaller number of closures and a net increase in the overall number of services of 125. The trend in growth has been observed in the first four months of 2024.

Combined, these data demonstrate that, overall, early learning and childcare provision is increasing in terms of number of services opening and the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering.

However, some parents continue to have difficulty in finding places for their children, in part due to the progress that has been achieved in relation to affordability with the introduction of the fee freeze through Core Funding and the expansion the National Childcare Scheme.

I have recently established a new Unit in my Department to undertake more detailed analysis of supply and demand.

This Unit will also lead on the administration of capital funding programmes to support the delivery of additional capacity in the sector. Applications for the Expansion Grant scheme have recently closed. An Extension Grant scheme will open later this year and I hope to provide further details of that scheme to the sector in the coming weeks.