Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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274. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the role that will be fulfilled by the Childcare Development Agency, which he has established on an administrative basis; whether it will take responsibility for identifying gaps in the current provision and develop a long-term capital programme to fill those gaps; and whether the current capital grant scheme is being put on a permanent basis with a five-year envelope under the National Development Plan. [38394/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Significant progress has been made in advancing plans for a dedicated state agency for early learning childcare and school age childcare. It is envisaged that this agency will undertake the functions carried out by Pobal Early Years (including Better Start), the 30 City/County Childcare Committees, as well as operational functions currently undertaken by DCEDIY.

A Programme Oversight Board has been established to ensure that proposals for a new agency are based on offering the best possible service to children and their families, educators and practitioners and service providers while ensuring value for money.

My Department is currently engaging with independent consultants who have been contracted to carry out a phase of research, analysis and stakeholder engagement to inform the design of the agency. This work, which is expected to take 18-24 months, is currently focused on information gathering, analysis and an initial design phase to take place throughout 2024 and 2025. A second phase relates to a more in-depth design and costing exercise to take place from 2025 and is scheduled to take 6-9 months. The work will culminate in a costed agency design, including the remit, organisational structure and service delivery model, which will be presented to Government for approval.

My Department is committed to ongoing consultation with all stakeholders throughout the design process. In that regard, a series of stakeholder consultation sessions have already been held with key stakeholders in December 2023, January 2024, May 2024 and June 2024 with valuable input being received as part of a collaborative co-design process to develop a vision, mission and values for the agency, and a mapping exercise on the proposed functions for the new agency. A further consultation session is being planned for October 2024 regarding the mapping of the workforce across the current operating model for early learning and care and school age childcare.

This year, I established a Supply Management Unit within the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare division of my Department. A key part of the unit’s remit is to develop a planning function for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of supply and demand of early learning and childcare places.

This unit is currently undertaking a forward planning project to identify the quantum and volume of different types of early learning and childcare places across the country, whether or not those places are occupied and how that aligns with the numbers of children in the corresponding age cohorts at local area level.

This unit also includes as part of its remit to begin an exploration of public provision as called for in Recommendation 25 of an Expert Group report, Partnership for the Public Good. That report noted that ‘public provision may be the best way – and possibly the only way – to deal with some gaps/failures in the sector, such as a lack of sufficient services in some locations’. There are different understandings of what public provision means to stakeholders in the sector. Issues relating to staff employment, pay and conditions; ownership and management of buildings; operating models; governance arrangements; service offering; fees for parents; and the overall funding model will need to be examined. These issues, along with the wider potential implications of introducing an element of public delivery, are being examined by officials.

The National Planning Framework identifies Early Learning and Childcare and School Age Childcare as a national policy objective, with €250 million earmarked to develop this infrastructure over its lifetime. €89 million has been allocated to ELC and SAC under the revised NDP over the period 2023-2026 with the majority of this funding intended for the delivery of new places.

Under the Building Blocks - Improvement Grant, which operated in 2023, €9 million was allocated in grants ranging from €35,000 to €75,000 to fund energy upgrades or retrofit projects.

During 2024 and 2025, my Department is operating the Building Blocks Capacity Grant schemes. The Capacity Grant has two strands, an Expansion scheme and an Extension scheme, both of which will support existing services to increase capacity.

Under the Building Blocks Expansion Grant scheme, which is operating in 2024, grants of between €25,000 and €100,000 were awarded to projects to undertake renovation or upgrades to existing space to cater for more children. Funding has been paid to 22 services and will deliver 290 new places, primarily in the 1-3 year old cohort.

Under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme, some €25 million will be available in 2025 to deliver additional capacity. Under the scheme, community and private providers may apply for funding to physically extend their premises. In addition, community providers may apply for funding to purchase or to construct new premises.

Proposals for the utilisation of the allocation of €30 million capital funding in 2026 are in development.