Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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400. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will consider reopening the building blocks scheme through Pobal for 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13061/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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€25m in capital funding has been made available this year under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme. The primary focus of the scheme is to increase capacity in the 1–3-year-old, pre-ECCE age range for full day care.

The application window for this scheme is now closed and an appraisal process has begun. I expect to announce the outcome of this process in the coming weeks.

The capital funding allocation for this scheme is required to be spent in this calendar year and my Department does not currently have further voted expenditure for any other capital schemes this year so it would not be feasible to reopen the scheme.

The approach to capital investment in future years is being considered in the context of the Programme for Government commitments.