Early Years Sector

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Questions (2581)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Question:

2581. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her attention has been drawn to whether or not there has been a reduction in the number of infant spaces at early years providers in County Cork particularly but not limited to the community sector; and if she will consider action to rectify this. [34355/19]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

My Department funds 30 City and County Childcare Committees across the country. Part of their role is to advise my Department on capacity issues. I would encourage anyone having difficulty in securing a place to make contact with their local CCC. Contact details for all of the CCCs, in addition to other information about the services they provide, may be found on www.myccc.ie

As regards capacity issues more generally, each year Pobal conducts research on behalf of my Department to examine a number of factors related to childcare services in Ireland, including the monitoring of capacity. The Early Years Sector Profile report, which was published in November 2018 and relates to the 2017/2018 programme year, indicates that existing childcare provision nationally meets current needs in terms of capacity whilst recognising that small pockets of under supply may exist within this. The latest Early Years Sector Profile report, based on a survey completed in May 2018, outlines a 7% vacancy rate as a percentage of children enrolled in Cork. It simultaneously reports a 12% waiting list rate, indicating both under-supply and over-supply in different areas and for different age groups.

Pobal reports that nationally the trend suggests a reduction in waiting lists for older children and an increase for under two's. Pobal cautions that its data on waiting lists cannot by itself be used to inform capacity decisions as parents often place their children on more than one waiting list. The following table is the latest information available taken from the Pobal report:

County	Enrolled	Waiting list	Vacant places
Carlow	2,057	260	68
Cavan	3,120	249	104
Clare	4,280	192	383
Cork City	4,246	510	295
Cork County	14,662	869	1,032
Donegal	6,575	477	882
Dublin – Dublin City	16,075	3,492	581
Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	6,357	880	224
Dublin – Fingal	11,149	1,076	450
Dublin – South Dublin	9,294	639	373
Galway	10,514	571	620
Kerry	5,625	269	186
Kildare	8,045	350	304
Kilkenny	3,944	414	195
Laois	3,695	43	298
Leitrim	1,437	63	74
Limerick	7,805	865	278
Longford	1,685	168	59
Louth	4,297	238	197
Mayo	4,509	421	331
Meath	6,996	396	355
Monaghan	3,623	147	190
Offaly	2,697	123	225
Roscommon	2,311	172	98
Sligo	3,144	185	88
Tipperary	6,662	372	437
Waterford	4,612	274	203
Westmeath	3,781	316	385
Wexford	5,724	296	281
Wicklow	4,276	231	224
Total	173,197	14,558	9,420

Further, I secured €8.86m in capital funding for childcare in 2019 with the ultimate aim of benefitting parents and children through improving our childcare infrastructure and capacity. A particular focus will be to expand service provision for children under three years of age. The 2019 early years capital scheme has a primary focus on building places for the under-threes. I have made €3.7m available for this age group which will lead to the creation of more than 1,300 additional places before the year end. Early years providers from Cork compete alongside services from all other parts of the country and all applications are appraised in a fair and impartial manner and solely on the basis of the quality of their application.

Under the National Planning Framework and the National Development Plan published in 2018, I ensured that Childcare was identified as one of our nation's strategic priorities. I am delighted that €250 million in additional funding has been committed to for the expansion of high quality, early learning and care and school age childcare over the duration of the Plan.