Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 April 2023
673. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will report her representations to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth regarding research on early learning and care, and school-age childcare needs of parents who work atypical hours or live in rural communities, and develop recommendations for future action, as required by the Rural Development Policy 2021-2025. [19607/23]
View answerOur Rural Future is the whole of Government policy for sustainable rural development in Ireland. It was published in March 2021 and is the most ambitious rural development policy for Ireland in decades. It contains more than 150 measures intended to support the post–covid recovery in the short-term, economic and social development in the longer terms as well as environmental and cultural well-being.
The policy acknowledges the challenges facing those seeking to provide, and avail of, childcare in rural areas, and the need to better understand the requirements of parents of early years and school age children in these communities.
The research referred to by the deputy falls under Measure 95 of Our Rural Future with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth designated as having lead responsibility for delivery.
My Department monitors and co-ordinates the progress towards delivery of these measures through published six-monthly Progress Reports, which are available on my Department’s website. The Third Progress Report, which covers the period to December 2022, will be published shortly and it indicates that the first phase of this two-phase project was completed in August 2022.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has confirmed it anticipates that a final report incorporating the results of both project phases, as well as a review of the relevant literature, will be published in quarter 3 of 2023.
