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Early Childhood Care and Education

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 September 2020

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Questions (188)

Kathleen Funchion

Question:

188. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration if he is satisfied there is sufficient capacity in the early years and school-age childcare system in view of the impact that Covid-19 has had on settings; the details of notifications of closures issued to Tusla for early years settings by service type and county since January 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27633/20]

View answer

Written answers

The reopening of the early learning and care and school-age childcare sector and the resumption of services has been positive to date.

Undoubtedly, the stimulus package provided by my Department has been critical to sustain capacity in their sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme, which operated from April to June, enabled participating providers to retain almost 23,000 staff. A funding package to support the reopening of services from 29 June enabled the majority (approximately 95%) of services the ordinarily operate during the summer months to do so. There is strong evidence to suggest that further supports secured in August for the sector have ensured that capacity in the sector has been retained. 

So far in this new programme year, 4,331 (95% of all services) have signed a funding agreement with my Department to operate at least one of the ELC and SAC funding schemes and child registrations for ECCE, NCS, CCS and TEC are higher than the same period last year. There have also been 4,044 applications for the capital grant and 3,832 applications for the reopening support payment with a combined payment to services of almost €26 million.

While some of these settings may reduce capacity depending on their layout to implement public health guidance, there is no required capacity reduction owing to COVID-19. The Regulations in relation to the adult-child ratios and the floor-space requirements for ELC or SAC services have not been amended. This decision was based on advice provided by the HPSC.  Most services should be able to comply with the public health advice with no or little reduction in numbers of places. 

In respect of closures, where a registered early learning and care service decides to close, they are obliged,  in line with the requirements of the Child Care Act 1991 (as amended by Part 12 of the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013) to notify the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate of their planned closure. This data is collated and verified by Tusla on a rolling monthly basis. On this basis, 130 services that were on the Early Years Register reported permanent closure to Tusla between January and end of August 2020 (see Tables below for breakdown). This compares to 133 for the same period last year.

Separately, Tusla have also reported that 9 standalone school-age childcare services have closed this year, though there is no comparable data for 2019 as registrations for School Age Services only began during 2019.

Looking further at capacity, additional data from Tusla indicates that 53 new services have opened this year to date, compared to 56 by the same time last year.  It is also known that overall capacity has grown by approximately 60% over the last 5 years and the average service size has grown from 33 in 2014, to 47 in 2019.

Closure Tables:

Cessations by County: January – August 2020

County

Number of Cessations

Clare

1

Cork

17

Donegal

1

Dublin

43

Galway

5

Kerry

2

Kildare

13

Kilkenny

4

Laois

1

Leitrim

1

Limerick

3

Louth

2

Mayo

3

Meath

9

Monaghan

1

Offaly

2

Roscommon

2

Sligo

1

Tipperary

1

Waterford

3

Westmeath

5

Wexford

3

Wicklow

7

Grand Total

130

Cessations by Service Type: January – August 2020

Service Type

Number of Cessations

Childminder

4

Drop-In

2

Full Day

25

Part Time

14

Sessional

85

Grand Total

130

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