Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1226. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she provide an update on the work to date to transform the supply management unit into a forward planning and delivery unit within her Department to identify areas of need, forecast demand and deliver public supply within the childcare sector where required; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30370/25]

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.

Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% from the 2021/22 programme year. Core Funding application data shows that between Year 1 and Year 3 of the scheme, annual place hours increased by over 15%. 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 childcare remains higher than available supply, particularly for younger children and in certain parts of the country.

Last year, a Supply Management Unit within the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Division was established. In line with the Programme for Government commitment to resource and transform this Unit into a Forward Planning and Delivery Unit, additional staff have been allocated and it is pursuing an ambitious programme of work.

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.

The forward planning model being developed draws on administrative data to map the child population and location of funded services, and GIS tools to model the link between children and available services. This will enable the identification of areas of need and can model the benefits associated with proposed interventions.

The Programme for Government commits for the first time to provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. State ownership of facilities is a a very substantial and significant development and offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand.

Some early scoping work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of public provision. More detailed and extensive policy development and design work is ongoing in order progress to implementation stage, having regard to the wider emerging policy context as set out in the Programme for Government. The revised National Development Plan will stipulate the capital allocation to support this work in the coming years.

The Unit is also responsible for the Building Blocks Extension scheme operating this year. I was delighted to announce on Monday 19th May 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.