Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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53. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he is satisfied with the availability of childcare facilities, given the increasing need for both parents to be at work, and to meet the requirements of one-parent families; the ongoing work being undertaken to improve provision in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39169/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Ensuring access to quality, affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government.

Data available to my Department demonstrates that, overall, early learning and childcare provision is expanding in terms of number of services opening, the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering, the numbers of staff employed and the numbers of parents supported through various schemes and initiatives.

The Early Years Sector Profile Survey shows that, between 2021/22 and 2022/23, the estimated number of enrolments in services rose by 8%, while Core Funding application data shows that between Year 1 and Year 2 of the scheme, annual place hours increased by 7.4%.

Data from Tusla on service closures and new service registrations shows a net increase of 129 in the overall number of services in 2023 and a five-year low in the number of net services closures – with preschool service closures falling by 18% in the first year of Core Funding.

The Early Years Sector Profile Survey shows that the estimated number of staff in the early learning and childcare workforce rose by 8% from 34,357 to 37,060 between 2021 and 2023.

Data from the National Childcare Scheme indicates that since 2022, there has been a 22 per cent increase in the number of providers offering the Scheme, a 100 per cent increase in the numbers of children benefitting from the Scheme and a 52 per cent increase in the number of sponsored children.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.

Notwithstanding the significant increase in provision, there is also evidence of some parents having difficulty in finding the type of provision that they would like for their children, particularly younger children. This is likely at least partly driven by the major progress that has been achieved in relation to affordability of provision over recent years with the introduction and extension of the National Childcare Scheme subsidies and the establishment of the fee freeze through Core Funding.

At the same time, there are also instances of underutilisation of capacity with some services reporting vacant places and others not operating to the maximum of their Tusla capacity.

This year, I established a Supply Management Unit within the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare division of its Department. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop a better understanding of the nature of supply and how it relates to demand and to develop policy to support the delivery of more early learning and childcare places in the parts of the country where they are most needed.

This unit is currently developing a forward planning model which will 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.

In addition to the design and implementation of the major current funding streams such as Core Funding, the NCS and ECCE which all influence the volume and type of provision in place, the Department also administers capital investment under the revised National Development Plan, through the Building Blocks Capacity Grant. DCEDIY has a capital allocation of €89 million between 2023 and 2026 under the National Development Plan.

The Building Blocks Capacity Grant schemes will operate during 2024 and 2025. The Building Blocks Capacity Grant has two strands, an Expansion scheme (now closed) and an Extension scheme to support existing services to increase capacity.

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 between to physically extend their premises. In addition, community providers may apply for funding to purchase or to construct new premises.

From 30 September, following the commencement of the Childminding Regulations, it will be possible for childminders to start applying to Tusla to go through the registration process. Once registered by Tusla, childminders can then also apply to take part in the National Childcare Scheme. This will increase the numbers of funded and regulated early learning and childcare places available.