Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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211. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to outline her comprehensive plan to address this significant concern on the availability of childcare places (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3740/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Increasing access to affordable childcare is a key priority of government.

Last year, a Supply Management Unit within the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Division was established, and the Programme for Government articulates an intention that the unit be resourced and transformed into a Forward Planning and Delivery Unit to identify areas of need, forecast demand and deliver public supply within the childcare sector where required.

A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop capacity for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of the supply and demand in this sector. The development of a forward planning model is currently underway utilising the expertise of statisticians on secondment from the Central Statistics Office, an early learning and childcare expert from a County Childcare Committee and 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. This model will assist my Department in identifying where unmet need/demand and areas of low supply exist.

This forward planning model will be a central element of my Department's plans to achieve the policy goals set out in the Programme for Government. These policy goals include:

• To build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system with State-led facilities adding capacity
• Provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists.
• Plan the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme, including Irish medium naíonraí.

I am committed to continuing to improve accessibility and achieve these policy goals within the lifetime of the Government. Further progress on accessibility must be integrated with our efforts to improve availability, affordability and quality.

One way in which Government is supporting the expansion of capacity is through capital funding. The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme was launched on the 4th November 2024. Applications for this scheme have now closed and an appraisal process has begun. The primary focus of the Extension Grant Scheme is to increase capacity in the 1–3-year-old, pre-ECCE, age range for full day care. 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.

€25m will be made available this year to deliver additional capacity under the Scheme and I expect to announce the outcome of the application process in March.