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Childcare Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 February 2022

Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Questions (573, 576)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Question:

573. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of drop-in childcare services operating; the location of these services by county council; the financial supports available to drop-in services; if he has any particular start-up supports for such services and their business model; the reason that there are so few operating as exclusive drop-in services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9288/22]

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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Question:

576. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of drop-in childcare services broken down by exclusively drop in and also as part of the wider service as a percentage of the overall number of registered childcare services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9291/22]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 573 and 576 together.

As at the end of January 2022, there were 4,128 early years services registered with Tusla. Of these, 17 services were listed exclusively as a drop-in service, with a further 10 services including drop-in as part of their wider service provision. On this basis, there were 27 services providing drop-in services, representing 0.65% of the total number of early years services on the national register.

Tusla does not collate the requested data by local authority area but does collate it by county. As at the end of January 2022, the total number of registered early years services listed as a drop-in broken down by county is as follows:

County

Exclusively Drop In

Part of Wider Service

Total

Cork

3

0

3

Donegal

0

1

1

Dublin

5

4

9

Galway

3

1

4

Kerry

1

0

1

Kilkenny

1

0

1

Limerick

0

1

1

Louth

0

1

1

Meath

1

0

1

Tipperary

0

1

1

Wexford

2

0

2

Wicklow

1

1

2

Total

17

10

27

Most of the early years services on the Tusla register operating as drop-in services are situated in hotels, shopping centres and leisure centres; however, there are some in other settings, which receive funding by State, (e.g. services operating as drop-in services situated in Family Resource Centres, refugees or Drug Treatment Services).

As with any early years service, drop-in services must register with Tusla and meet the regulatory standards as set out in the Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016. Drop-in services are intended to be used exclusively on an intermittent basis and children attending should attend for no more than 2 hours consecutively. Given this, children who attend early years services operating exclusively as drop-in services are not funded under my Department’s funding schemes, specifically the ECCE programme (which operates over 3 hours per day, 5 days per week, 38 weeks per year) or the NCS and CCSP.

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