Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth | The availability of childcare facilities given the increasing necessity for both parents to be at work and to meet the requirements of one-parent families

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Children; Equality; Disability; Integration and Youth the extent to which he is satisfied regarding the availability of childcare facilities given the increasing necessity for both parents to be at work and to meet the requirements of one-parent families; the ongoing work being undertaken to improve provisions in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

Ensuring access to quality, affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government. Various data sources provide evidence that the supply of early learning and childcare is increasing.

Sector profile data shows an increase in enrolments nationally of 8% between 2022 and 2023 with a similar increase in enrolments in Kildare for the same period.  

Data from Core Funding shows an increase in 3% in the number of hours of provision being delivered between September 2022 and September 2023 with capacity increases of 5.6% to be funded from this coming September.

Tusla registration data from 2023 shows the largest increase in new early learning and childcare services in a number of years, a smaller number of closures and a net increase in the overall number of services of 125. The trend in growth has been observed in the first four months of 2024.

Combined, these data demonstrate that, overall, early learning and childcare provision is increasing in terms of number of services opening and the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering.

However, some parents continue to have difficulty in finding places for their children, in part due to the progress that has been achieved in relation to affordability with the introduction of the fee freeze through Core Funding and the expansion the National Childcare Scheme.

I have recently established a new Unit in my Department to undertake more detailed analysis of supply and demand.

This Unit will also lead on the administration of capital funding programmes to support the delivery of additional capacity in the sector.  Applications for the Expansion Grant scheme have recently closed.  An Extension Grant scheme will open later this year and I hope to provide further details of that scheme to the sector in the coming weeks.