Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 September 2021
434. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide the raw data collected as part of the POBAL Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2021. [45028/21]
View answerThe Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey, which is administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department, has captured crucial data on the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector for the past 18 years, and forms a key input into policy development and reform in the Department.
The data captured are published, alongside administrative data from Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) schemes, in the Annual Early Years Sector Profile Report. The report provides a detailed overview of the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector in Ireland, including the numbers of children in receipt of state subsidies, information on ELC and SAC fees, staff wages, qualifications and turnover.
The Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey was administered in June 2021, during what remained an unusual and challenging period, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
These data are being prepared for analysis. This involves a number of steps to clean and organise the data before they can be analysed, written up and reported on. Due to the volume and complexity of the data, these steps will take several months.
I expect that preliminary data from the annual early years sector profile survey will be available in Quarter 4 of this year followed by the publication of the report in Quarter 1, 2022.
