Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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23. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to provide capital funding for the development of facilities for providers of early childhood care and education and afterschool care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38522/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Some €89 million has been allocated to the sector over the period 2023-2026 under the revised National Development Plan. This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare.

My Department’s Building Blocks Capacity Grant scheme, which is operating over 2024 and 2025, will support services to increase capacity through two strands, the Expansion Scheme, now closed for applications, and the Extension Scheme.

Under the Building Blocks Expansion Grant scheme, which is currently being disbursed, 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.

Under the Building Blocks Extension Scheme, €25 million in capital funding will be made available next year to deliver thousands of additional early learning and childcare places. It will offer funding for larger scale projects to enable existing community and private services to build new capacity onto their current premises by means of physical extension. It will also allow community services to apply to purchase or construct a new premises.

The primary focus of the Extension Scheme is to increase capacity in the 1-3 year old, pre-ECCE age range for full day provision. While applicants will be required to deliver additional full-time places in this age range, places for children in other age brackets may be considered for funding once the minimum requirements for places for 1-3 year olds are met.

Appraisal of applications for this Scheme will consider the supply and demand in the area around the proposed projects and seeks to prioritise funding for areas with the biggest supply/demand mismatch. I hope to announce further details of the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme in the coming weeks.