Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Childcare Services
Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1136. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps a parent can take when there are no childcare places for children under two years in Mullingar even on a three-day basis (details supplied). [46256/24]
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department employs a range of approaches to identify and address shortages of early learning and childcare places, bearing in mind the wide range of types of early learning and childcare provision offered by services and required by families.
Last 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 Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop capacity for monitoring, analysing and forecasting the supply and demand of childcare.
The development of a forward planning model is currently underway utilising the skills of statisticians on secondment from the Central Statistics Office, those experienced in the field of early learning and childcare and the expertise of a GIS mapper working with the Department. The model will seek to identify the nature 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.
It is important to note that demand for early learning and childcare beyond sessional pre-school provision is highly elastic and shaped very substantially by families' individual composition, circumstances and preferences; employment patterns and income; and the price and availability of services.
My Department collects extensive data on supply through both survey and administrative data. A range of data sources show that the level of capacity in the sector has risen substantially year-on-year between 2022 and 2023. However, there is also evidence that demand for places is increasing and, for certain cohorts and in certain areas, outstripping supply. This is partly driven by the significant improvements in affordability that have been achieved in recent years. Published data on capacity broken down at county level is available at www.pobal.ie/childcare/capacity/
Capital funding has been allocated to the early learning and childcare sector under the revised National Development Plan (NDP). This will enable significant investment in early learning and childcare. Some €89 million has been allocated to my Department between 2023 and 2026. The primary focus of the new Building Blocks Capacity Grant Schemes is to increase capacity in the 1-3 year old, pre-ECCE, age range for full day care.
Appraisal of applications for this scheme considers the supply and demand in the area around the proposed projects and seeks to prioritise funding for areas with the biggest supply/demand mismatch. €25m will be made available this year to deliver additional capacity under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme. The Extension Grant Scheme, which is now open for applications and is a competitive application process, is open to existing Early Learning and Childcare services to undertake large scale extensions to their premises to provide additional capacity for full day places for 1-3 year olds. The scheme will also fund community services to build or purchase new premises.
My Department funds 30 City/County Childcare Committees (CCCs), which provide support and assist families and early learning and childcare providers with early learning, and childcare matters. The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country are in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services, particularly where there is unmet need.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on .
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