Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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2009. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the status of the childcare forward planning unit and when outputs of their work will be seen; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47086/25]

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.

The Programme for Government commits to resourcing and transforming the Supply Management Unit into a Forward Planning and Delivery Unit within my Department to identify areas of need, forecast demand and deliver public supply within the childcare sector where required.

The Forward Planning and Delivery Unit within my Department has now been allocated additional resources and staff and is pursuing an ambitious programme of work. A forward planning model, under the remit of this unit, 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 mapping tools to model the link between children and services. This will enable my Department to identify areas of need and model the benefits associated with proposed interventions. It will be used to inform future interventions and decisions on supply requirements, including investment decisions.

In 2024 and 2025, my Department is delivering capital investment through the Building Blocks Scheme , which is funded under the revised National Development Plan and managed by the Forward Planning and Delivery Unit. The scheme is operating through two strands, an Expansion strand and the Extension strand to support existing services to increase capacity. Capital funding is being awarded under both strands to early learning and childcare services to increase their capacity in the 1-3 year old, pre-ECCE, age range for full day or part-time care.

Up to €25 million has been made available for the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme, which is operating in 2025. Fifty services were successful in progression to the next stage of the application process, which involves putting in place a legal framework to support the project. These fifty projects will deliver up to 1,500 additional places.

The Programme for Government also commits to providing capital investment to build or purchase state-owned childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists.

State ownership of facilities is a very substantial and significant development and offers the potential to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand. Early scoping work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of state-led provision. Detailed policy development and design is ongoing in order to progress to implementation stage, having regard to the wider emerging policy context as set out in the Programme for Government, including in relation to affordability commitments. Allocation of capital investment to build or purchase state-owned childcare facilities is being considered within the context of the revised National Development Plan, which provides a capital expenditure allocations for the period 2026-2030.

The potential for development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme will be considered as part of the wider capital plans to develop State-led services.

The Forward Planning and Delivery Unit is also progressing the Programme for Government commitment to reviewing the 2001 Childcare Facilities Guidelines for Planning Authorities to ensure childcare spaces are provided and put into use. The unit is currently engaging with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to examine and review the 2001 Planning Guidelines for Local Authorities on Early Learning and Childcare Settings with a view to updating them under the Planning and Development Act 2024. An important step in preparation for revising the guidelines is to engage with Local Authorities with experience of applying the guidelines to understand their impact and issues arising. The findings of this process will inform the scale and content of revisions to the guidelines.