Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2021
703. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the systems his Department has in place similar to the Department of Education that track population growth throughout the country and highlight possible capacity issues on an ongoing basis. [16725/21]
View answerWhile DECDIY does not publish one overarching analysis of population change, my Department uses population data to plan policy and services. The Research and Evaluation Unit within DCEDIY has the benefit of a seconded statistician from the Central Statistics Office, and regularly draws on population data to support policy relevant analysis across the broad remit of the Department. In particular, the Research Unit publishes a series of Statistical Spotlights on key topics such as Traveller and Roma Children; Family and Household Structure in Ireland; Young Carers in Ireland and The Reconciliation of Work and Family Life.
Additionally, DCEDIY uses population growth data to inform the provision of Early Years and Youth programmes:
- For the ECCE (Pre-school) Programme, the Department prepares an annual forecast of demand for ECCE Programme places. Estimates are derived using a range of administrative and survey data sources. The total eligible cohort is derived from birth data provided by the Central Statistics Office. Overall uptake is derived through the examination of trends in uptake since the introduction of the programme, data from Growing Up in Ireland, and data from the Pupil Online Database held by the Department of Education. Since the extension of the Programme in 2016, data on school starting age - also from the Pupil Online Database - has also been used. The Department also accesses data on the number of children in the ECCE-eligible cohort at electoral division level, which provides a robust indication of demand for ECCE places at a local level.
Unlike the ECCE Programme, which enjoys a near universal take-up and straightforward eligibility criteria, there is significant uncertainties when it comes to demand for other early learning and care and school-age childcare. Uncertain demand arises for a number of reasons including parental preferences for centre-based early learning and care and school-age childcare vs. childminding and relative care, female labour market participation rates and intensity and future economic trends. The introduction of the National Childcare Scheme, where eligibility for a universal subsidy is determined by age and eligibility for a targeted subsidy determine by age and income, greatly simplifies the process of estimating demand. The Department has also joined the ESRI SWITCH research programme. This assists with further removing uncertainty with regard to for example parental preferences and female labour force participation rates.
In addition to this, Pobal, on behalf of the Department undertakes an annual survey of early learning and care and school-age childcare service providers. Among the data gathered through this survey is information on the number of children enrolled and those on waiting lists, as well as information on vacant places in these services.
First 5 seeks to build on these efforts. Actions include: strengthening capacity to accurately forecast supply and demand in early learning and care and school-age childcare by undertaking a regular national need assessment.
- The ‘UBU Your Place Your Space’ scheme is a targeted youth funding scheme which provides out-of-school supports in local communities to marginalised, disadvantaged or vulnerable young people between the age of 10 and 24. It is underpinned by the Area Profile, Needs Assessment and Service Requirement (APNASR) process which allows for the gathering and analysis of available demographic data and local knowledge to produce an area profile of their functional area. This data capture pays cognisance to changes in population within Education & Training Board (ETB) areas. The ETB carries out an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data to identify and evidence the needs of young people which informs future service provision.
