Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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625. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare providers in Wicklow; the number of children registered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5568/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Each year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile.

For the 2022/2023 programme year, there were 162 ELC and SAC providers in Co. Wicklow that had a contract for at least one DCEDIY funded programme/scheme.

The most recent published capacity data for the 2022/23 programme year also estimated that there were 6,423 children enrolled in ELC and SAC services in County Wicklow. This information is also provided in tabular form below:

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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626. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare providers that accept under-one-year-olds in Wicklow; the number of under-one-year-olds registered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5569/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Each year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile (AEYSP).

The most recent published data for the 2022/23 programme year was based on responses from 4,009 service providers (88.6% of service providers registered for at least one DCEDIY programme/scheme). Data from responding services is used, where sufficient data allows, to estimate county and national figures for the wider sector. AEYSP 2022/23 estimated that there were 6,423 children enrolled in ELC and SAC services in County Wicklow. This data also indicated that 55% of service providers in Wicklow had at least one vacant place.

The estimated number of enrollments for 0-1 is not available as the accuracy of the estimations could not be guaranteed due to sample size. However, reported data from the 137 service providers in Wicklow who responded to the capacity section of the survey indicated that 0.61% of reported enrollments in County Wicklow were for under-one-year-olds. The reported data also indicates that 11% (n=15) of service providers who responded to the capacity section of the survey in Wicklow offer care to children aged 0-1.