Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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752. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of ELC/SAC services that were found to be non-compliant in relation to staffing ratios, staff qualifications, Garda vetting, and basic needs, broken down by private or community and private service, service size, full day care, part-time, sessional, school age child-care and county, in 2023 and 2024, in tabular form. [25279/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the subject matter of the Deputy's question relates to an operational matter for Tusla, I have referred the matter to them for a direct reply.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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753. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will provide an update on the allocations for the building blocks extension grant scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25329/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme was launched on 4th November 2024. The closing date for applications was 30th January.

A total of 78 applications were received. These applications came from a variety of locations across the country.

Initial eligibility reviews, a full appraisal process and further suitability checks were undertaken of the applications. The Office of Public Works (OPW) and Pobal completed appraisals of eligible applications against three criteria - evidence of need, quality of application and readiness to progress the project.

Of the 78 applications received, 11 were deemed ineligible and therefore did not progress to the appraisal stage. Of the 67 applications appraised, 49 met the qualifying standards.

I was delighted to yesterday announce the 49 applications which will be progressing to the next stage of the process. These 49 applications come from a mix of Community Extension (24), Private Extension (7), Community Purchasing (4) and Community Construction (14) projects, which, when completed, will deliver almost 1,500 additional full time childcare places for 1-3 year olds across the country. I look forward to seeing how these projects progress over the coming months.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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754. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide a timeline for the implementation of a €200 per month childcare cap, as outlined in the Programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25330/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to reducing the cost of early learning and childcare to €200 per month per child.

This will build on significant progress in affordability that has already been made through a number of existing Schemes.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96%. Over 70% of families on low income report that they would not be able to send their child to pre-school without this Programme.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements the ECCE Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare.

The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth a minimum of €96.20 per week for 45 hours.

Record numbers of children and their families are now benefiting from the NCS. Almost 220,000 unique children benefited from an NCS subsidy in 2024.

Children in childminding settings that have come forward for registration, following changes to the childminder Tulsa registration requirements last September, can also benefit from NCS subsidies.

The fee management system introduced through the Core Funding Scheme has ensured that the investment in affordability is not absorbed by unnecessary fee increases and/or uncapped fees. A cap on fees was introduced for services joining Core Funding for the first time in the third year. It was announced in June 2024 that a fee cap will apply to all services in Core Funding from September 2025.

An evaluation of the National Childcare Scheme is due to start this year. This evaluation will review how the Scheme has performed to date and identify potential enhancements that could be made. The findings from this evaluation will inform the work of my Department in reaching the cap of €200 per month per child within the lifetime of the Government.

A detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early learning and childcare system will be developed, informed by stakeholder consultation. This will include the steps to deliver the €200 per month cap and outline the timeline for achieving this.

Further progress on affordability will not be made in isolation and will be integrated with our efforts to improve access, availability and the quality of early learning and childcare provision.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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755. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the current capacity of childcare services in County Donegal; her plans to increase the number of childcare facilities in County Donegal; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25332/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Improving access to quality and affordable Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare is a key priority of Government.

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. The most recent published capacity data for the 2023/24 programme year estimated that there were 8,913 children enrolled in ELC and SAC services in County Donegal. This data also indicated that 48% of service providers in County Donegal had at least one vacant place and 42% had a waiting list.

Waiting list data is not a measure of overall demand for ELC and SAC places but can be used as an indication of demand for places for a given age group or service type. However, not all services operate a waiting list and an individual child may be on multiple waiting lists in different services.

Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments has increased by 25% from two years previously. The Tusla register of services demonstrates a net increase in the numbers of registered early learning and childcare services in 2024.

However, it appears that demand for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare remains higher than available supply, particularly for younger children and in certain parts of the country.

Demand for early learning and childcare beyond sessional pre-school 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.

Last year, a Supply Management Unit was established in my Department, and the Programme for Government articulates an intention that it be resourced and transformed into a Forward Planning and Delivery Unit to identify areas of need, forecast demand, and deliver public supply where required.

A forward planning model is in development which will be central to my Department's plans to achieve the policy goals set out in the Programme for Government to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system, with State-led facilities adding capacity.

My Department continues to support the ongoing development and resourcing of Core Funding which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. Core Funding, which is in its third programme year, funds services based on the number of places available.

This provides stability to services, and reduces the risk associated with opening a new service or expanding an already existing service. For the current programme year, the allocation for Core Funding would allows for a 6% increase in capacity. Additional funding was secured in Budget 2025 to facilitate a further 3.5% increase from September 2025, in the fourth programme year.

The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed to increase capacity in the 1–3-year-old, pre–Early Childhood Care and Education, age range for full day care. Core Funding partner services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or to construct or purchase new premises.

I was delighted to announce yesterday the 49 applications which will be progressing to the next stage of the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme. These 49 applications come from a mix of Community Extension (24), Private Extension (7), Community Purchasing (4) and Community Construction (14) projects, which, when completed, will deliver almost 1,500 additional full time childcare places for 1-3 year olds across the country. I look forward to seeing how these projects progress over the coming months.

My Department also funds 30 City/County Childcare Committees, which provide support and assist families and early learning and childcare providers. The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country can assist in identifying vacant places in services for children and families who need them and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services, particularly where there is unmet need.

Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee for assistance. Contact details for the Donegal County Childcare Committee may be found at: donegalchildcare.com