Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1368. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 1025 of 25 July 2023, what is defined as vacancy in the table provided (details supplied); the average childcare waiting lists for children aged 0-2 years in Dublin Bay North from 2015 to 2023, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37369/23]
View answerThe vacancy table previously supplied in Question No. 1025 was taken from data captured from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile, which is conducted by Pobal. Within this data, vacancy has been defined as the number of places a service is currently in a position to offer per day, minus the current number of places occupied.
Waiting list data in Dublin Bay North shows the following:
Number of children by age range (0-2 years) for services in Dublin Bay North
|
Total Waiting List |
Average waiting List (per service offering ELC to 0-2 year olds) |
Response rate overall |
|
|
2015/16 |
215 |
7 |
78.8% |
|
2016/17 |
287 |
9 |
84.3% |
|
2017/18 |
309 |
8 |
88.2% |
|
2018/19 |
255 |
7 |
85.0% |
|
2020/21 |
116 |
7 |
57.4% |
|
2021/22 |
429 |
15 |
82.4% |
Services completing the Sector Profile were asked to provide the number of children on a waiting list by age and service type. While the number of children on waiting lists is an indication of demand, it must be noted that parents often place their child/children on multiple lists. Therefore, this figure cannot be used to indicate overall demand but is useful in assessing demand for services for a particular age group or type of service.
Due to data quality/technical issues which resulted in a higher degree of missing data, the waiting list data for 2019/20 was excluded from the report. 2020/21 data was gathered in Spring 2020 with a response rate of 57%. Data collection for the 2022/23 Early Years Sector Profile is currently underway and will give an updated position.
