Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Childcare Services

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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1240. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the actions he is taking to urgently tackle the childcare crisis, particularly the shortage of places available for children under the age of one in the Dublin Southwest area; and his views on the barriers this creates for women returning to work. [1382/25]

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. Considerable investment has taken place in recent years to improve the resourcing, quality and availability of early learning and childcare.

The First 5 Strategy aims to support parents to be at home with their children for the whole of their first year. Research suggests that children benefit particularly from parental care in this period and the Strategy sets out this evidence in detail. The combined durations of Maternity, Paternity and Parent’s Leave and Benefit now equate to 46 weeks paid leave for a two-parent family. Mothers also have an entitlement to 16 weeks of Additional Maternity Leave which is unpaid. Many parents add annual leave to their family leave entitlements which allows for at least a further four weeks of paid leave per parent. Family leave provisions are kept under review to ensure that they are effective and respond to the needs of families.

As part of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, the right to request flexible working for parents and carers has commenced, and the entitlement to breastfeeding breaks under the Maternity Protection Acts was extended from six months to two years.

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 .

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 preschool 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.

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.

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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