Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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30. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the steps that will be taken in Budget 2026 to advance a public model of childcare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50106/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits for the first time to provision of early learning and childcare through State-led facilities adding 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 and to contribute to greater public management of the sector as a whole.

This work is being led by a new Forward Planning and Delivery Unit which has received additional resources. The unit is focused on identifying areas of need, forecasting demand, and planning for the delivery of State-led supply within the early learning and childcare sector where required.

A key aspect of the preparatory work being undertaken by the unit is the development of a forward planning model. The forward planning model 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 available services. This will enable the identification and comparison of areas of need with a consistent methodology.

Early scoping work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of State-led provision. More detailed and extensive policy development and design work 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.

State-led early learning and childcare services will be enabled by the capital allocation set out in the revised of the National Development Plan between 2026 and 2030.

State-led early learning and childcare builds on existing trajectory in Government policy for the sector as set out in Partnership for the Public Good in 2021, the key theme of which was the need to strengthen State involvement in the sector through greater levels of public management accompanied by increased State funding. Significant advances have been made in public management and increased public funding over the last number of years and State-led early learning and childcare is part of the next phase of developments building on this foundation.