Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 October 2019
269. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of crèches and crèche places that are operational, broken down by county and by status, that is, community or private. [43948/19]
View answerEach 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 nationwide in terms of capacity whilst recognising that small pockets of under-supply may exist within this.
The following table is the latest information available taken from the Pobal report
|
County |
Enrolled |
Vacant places |
|
Carlow |
2,057 |
68 |
|
Cavan |
3,120 |
104 |
|
Clare |
4,280 |
383 |
|
Cork City |
4,246 |
295 |
|
Cork County |
14,662 |
1,032 |
|
Donegal |
6,575 |
882 |
|
Dublin – Dublin City |
16,075 |
581 |
|
Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown |
6,357 |
224 |
|
Dublin – Fingal |
11,149 |
450 |
|
Dublin – South Dublin |
9,294 |
373 |
|
Galway |
10,514 |
620 |
|
Kerry |
5,625 |
186 |
|
Kildare |
8,045 |
304 |
|
Kilkenny |
3,944 |
195 |
|
Laois |
3,695 |
298 |
|
Leitrim |
1,437 |
74 |
|
Limerick |
7,805 |
278 |
|
Longford |
1,685 |
59 |
|
Louth |
4,297 |
197 |
|
Mayo |
4,509 |
331 |
|
Meath |
6,996 |
355 |
|
Monaghan |
3,623 |
190 |
|
Offaly |
2,697 |
225 |
|
Roscommon |
2,311 |
98 |
|
Sligo |
3,144 |
88 |
|
Tipperary |
6,662 |
437 |
|
Waterford |
4,612 |
203 |
|
Westmeath |
3,781 |
385 |
|
Wexford |
5,724 |
281 |
|
Wicklow |
4,276 |
224 |
|
Total |
173,197 |
9,420 |
The majority of early years services are operated by private organisations. In 2017/18 private services accounted for 74% (3,342) of all services contracted to provide at least one of the three early years programmes, with community services accounting for the remaining 26% (1,201). Over recent years, there has been a slight increase in the number of private services while the number of community services has remained relatively constant.
For reference please see figure 3.2 from the Early Years Sector Profile report attached, which gives a breakdown of the number of services by county and percentage by organisation type in the programme year 2017-18, which is the latest data available.
