Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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46. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the measures being taken to expand on the number of community based childcare providers for County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50194/25]

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%. However, it appears that demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children.

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.

A Forward Planning and Delivery Unit in this Department is pursuing an ambitious programme of work. The unit is developing a forward planning model which will be central to the 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.

This 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 fourth 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 previous programme year, the allocation for Core Funding allowed for a 6% increase in capacity. Additional funding was secured in Budget 2025 to facilitate a further 3.5% increase from September 2025.

The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed to increase capacity. Core Funding Partner services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or to construct or purchase new premises.

This scheme provide €25 million to expand full-day care places for 1- to 3-year-olds. It is expected that up to 1,500 places will be delivered by these projects. Of this number, almost 100 community places will be delivered in Cork.

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 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. This work will be supported through capital investment under the revised National Development Plan.

The approach more widely to ensuring appropriate levels of early learning and childcare supply is being considered by my Department and will be further articulated in the context of the Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system that Government has committed to publishing.

The 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 Cork County Childcare Committee may be found at www.corkchildcare.ie/

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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47. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the action she is taking to alleviate childcare costs for parents forced to rely on childcare services that have withdrawn from the core funding scheme due to a lack of alternative options in their area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50115/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Investment in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) has quadrupled in the last 10 years from €260 million in 2015 to €1.37 billion in 2025.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support to help families with their early learning and childcare costs, via a subsidy paid directly to the childcare provider. All children in Ireland between 24 weeks and 15 years of age are eligible for the subsidy, and the subsidy is provided for up to 45 hours of childcare a week. The universal subsidy amount is €2.14 per hour, with additional support available depending on the family's income and the child's age. The NCS has grown significantly in recent years. The numbers of children benefitting from the Scheme are up more than 70% since 2022.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides free universal pre-school to children in the eligible age range. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year. The programme year runs from the end of August to the following June in line with the primary school year. The weekly ECCE capitation is €69.00 and is paid pro rata to the number of days a child is registered for the ECCE programme year. ECCE must be available free of charge to parents/guardians in return for this capitation.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a programme of supports designed to ensure that children with additional needs can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The goal of AIM is to empower early learning and care providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of quality early learning and care in any mainstream service participating in ECCE. AIM resources are allocated based on a child’s individual needs through targeted and universal supports.

AIM, ECCE and the NCS are available to parents who avail of both Core Funding partner and non-partner services.

In September 2024, the Department commenced the rollout of Equal Start, a major model of supports to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare. Children benefitting from Equal Start include children living in disadvantaged areas, Traveller children, Roma children, children availing of the National Childcare Scheme through a sponsor body, children experiencing homelessness and children in the International Protection system.

Equal Start is designed to be developed and rolled out in phases. Services with the highest level of need have been targeted in the early phases. 787 settings (serving 35,000 children - 4,700 from priority cohorts) identified as operating in a context of concentrated disadvantage have been given Equal Start designation and are now receiving additional supports.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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48. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will outline her plans for the development of a childcare action plan to address the current childcare crisis in the country. [50026/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government outlines the commitment to "undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system". Officials in my Department are continuing to develop this Action Plan and are also developing plans for the broad consultation with stakeholders.

The Action Plan will look at affordability, access and quality of the early learning and care and school-age childcare system. These three attributes – affordability, accessibility and quality – are closely connected and the ways in which they interact is complex. It will be essential that we make progress in all three areas in parallel in order to deliver on our vision. Officials in my Department are working on an integrated approach to minimise the risk of unintended consequences and to identify opportunities to address multiple policy challenges at the same time.

In setting out plans to deliver on key Programme for Government commitments, the Action Plan will take into account existing plans, including the expert group report Partnership for the Public Good, Nurturing Skills (the Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare), the National Action Plan for Childminding, and First 5 (the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families). The Action Plan will also be aligned with new plans in development, such as the Action Plan for Administrative and Regulatory Simplification.

Officials are examining available research and data that will inform this Action Plan including findings from reviews of the ECCE programme and the Access and Inclusion Model.

Officials in this Department are also examining how recent consultations with stakeholders in the sector can inform the design of the broad consultation process that is committed to in the Programme for Government, having regard to ensuring the voices of children and families, educators and practitioners, providers and other stakeholders within the sector are taken into account.

I will provide further detail on the Action Plan and the consultation process at the earliest opportunity.