Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 March 2022
323. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the current capacity in school-age childcare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17140/22]
View answerBased on data gathered as part of the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2020/21 (in June 2021), the overall capacity among ELC and SAC services in contract to provide DCEDIY funding schemes was estimated to be 220,500 places. The table below presents these estimates by age range. There was an estimated 91.177 places for children aged 4-5 and 32,644 places for children age 6 and older.
These data include places for children who are school-age (i.e. age 4 and old) but who have not yet transitioned to school. These data also refer only to services in contract to deliver DCEDIY funding schemes. In addition to these services, there are up to 600 standalone SAC services registered with Tusla providing services to school-age children but not in contract to provide DCEDIY funding schemes.
|
Age group |
Capacity |
|
Up to 1 year (0-12 months) |
2,608 |
|
1 year+ to 2 years (13-24 months) |
10,630 |
|
2 years+ to 3 years (25-36 months) |
23,081 |
|
3 years+ to 4 years (37-48 months) |
60,360 |
|
4 years+ to 5 years (49-60 months) |
67,296 |
|
5 years+ to 6 years (61-72 months) |
23,881 |
|
6 years+ to 8 years (73-96 months) |
16,716 |
|
8 years+ |
15,928 |
|
Total |
220,500 |
Capacity data - by type of provision - is currently being captured by the City/County Childcare Committees and will be available in the coming weeks. These data are being gathered as part of the Action Plan developed by my Department to respond to the ELC and SAC needs of Ukrainian children and their families.
Moreover, fieldwork for the next Annual Early Years Sector Profile Survey will commence in April 2022, which will allow for more detailed information on capacity among services, including SAC services, to be gathered.
