Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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112. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reason she accounts for the trend of more naíonraí outside the Gaeltacht closing than opening in recent years; the steps she is taking to counter that trend; if she will intervene with emergency funding to save those at risk of closing in 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61619/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department's funding for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services is provided on the same basis to both Irish-medium and English-medium services, whether inside or outside Gaeltacht areas.

In line with commitments in the 5-year Action Plan for the Irish language, the Department recruited an Irish Language Support Coordinator in 2022 to drive the development of a National Plan and has provided funding since 2023 to Better Start to recruit an Irish Language Early Years Specialist to support mentoring and advice to Irish-medium early learning and care settings.

The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (DRCDG) has responsibility for the Irish language. DRCDG provides additional supports for Irish-medium ELC services in the Gaeltacht through its agencies and organisations such as Comhar Naíonraí na Gaeltachta.

In addition, in June 2024, DRCDG announced five-year funding to provide a comprehensive support and development service to naíonraí outside of the Gaeltacht, to be administered by Gaeloideachas. Furthermore, this Department has provided funding to Gaeloideachas in 2025 to support Irish-medium ELC settings. Additionally, the Department is currently working in collaboration with other relevant Departments and agencies to develop a national plan to further the development of Irish language provision in the ELC and SAC sector.

The development of such a plan is a commitment in the 5-Year Action Plan for the Irish Language. The national plan is expected to support the delivery of two commitments in First 5: the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families: “Introduce measures to ensure that children in Gaeltacht areas have access to Irish-medium ELC provision” and “Develop mechanisms to provide Irish-language supports to ELC provision where there are high proportions of children who are learning through the medium of Irish”. The plan is also expected to support the delivery of commitments in the Programme for Government to: “Support naíonraí and creches to ensure early education access in Gaeltacht communities and beyond” and “Plan the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme, including Irish-medium naíonraí”.

It is intended that the Plan will be published in the coming months.

The Department does not currently hold a directory of naíonraí or Irish-medium settings.

In 2023, the Department undertook a survey of Irish-medium early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) settings including childminders to obtain a baseline of the current level of Irish-medium provision in the sector. This survey asked service providers to distinguish, based on the language used in staff interactions with children, whether their service is: wholly Irish-medium; a mixed setting where part of the setting is English-medium and part of the setting is Irish-medium; an English-medium setting with some use of Irish; or a wholly English-medium setting.

Since then, the same question has been asked of services by Pobal through the Early Years Platform (Service Profile), which is used by the large majority of ELC and SAC settings. The most recent Service Profile data available to the Department indicates that, of 4,582 ELC and SAC services outside Gaeltacht areas that answered the question, 105 services were reported to be wholly Irish-medium and 133 services were reported to be mixed settings where part of the service is Irish-medium. This data is self-reported by services.

Since 2017, the Department has offered Sustainability Funding to community early learning and childcare services in crisis. In 2018, a Sustainability Funding policy was formalised, and a framework was created which coupled this Sustainability Funding with on-the-ground case management assistance. The purpose of the supports within this framework were to provide emergency funding to community services where a need for funding was identified while also ensuring that the case management performed at a service level identified and resolved underlying issues that may have caused the initial crisis.

As part of the Case Management process, City or County Childcare Committees (CCC) assist services with issues and difficulties that arise. The County Childcare Committees may refer Core Funding-partner services facing difficulties to Pobal and the Department to be considered for Sustainability Funding.

I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support to contact their County Childcare Committee to access case management supports. Contact details for the County Childcare Committee can be found online at the Department’s gov.ie website.

Case Management support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting and analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, financial support, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.

I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like assistance to contact their CCC to access case management supports. Contact details for the CCCs can be found at City and County Childcare Committees.