Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1866. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there is any other grant funding outside of Building Blocks provided via Pobal or any other agency for new builds for childcare facilities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19804/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed is to increase the number of full day places for 1–3-year-olds, pre-ECCE age range by existing Core Funding Partner Services. €25 million has been made available and it is anticipated to deliver a significant increase in places for this age cohort.

The capital funding allocation for the Building Blocks Extension scheme is required to be spent in this calendar year and my Department does not currently have further voted expenditure for additional capital schemes this year.

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

For the first time, the Programme for Government contains a commitment to public provision and to capital investment to build or purchase State-owned facilities. Some early work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of public provision. This will require significantly detailed policy development and design in order progress to implementation stage.

The Programme for Government commitments will inform my Department’s contribution to the upcoming review of the National Development Plan which will set out capital allocations for future years.