Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 October 2021
166. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total allocation in 2021 for the childcare capital grant scheme; the projected drawdown of this funding by year end; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48633/21]
View answerMy Department has, since 2015, administered an annual capital funding programme, under which early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) service providers are invited to apply for capital funding, to maintain and improve their services.
In 2021 I secured €10.5 million in Capital Funding for ELC and SAC childcare services.
The objective of the first round of grants under the 2021 Capital Programme was to provide grants to providers to help them to comply with fire safety regulations, a condition of their registration with Tulsa. As the full capital allocation was not claimed for these works, I announced a second round of capital grands would be in June 2021 to be used by services to support outdoor play and improve ventilation, as Covid infection control measures.
Pobal administers the Capital programme on behalf of my Department. Pobal have informed me that they received applications for €4,991,963 under the Fire Safety Grant, of which €4,689,711 has been paid to date.
3,689 applications were received for the second round of funding and a total of €4,597,500 has been paid to these services.
