Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 May 2024
239. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide the total capacity of the childcare sector for each age cohort; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19904/24]
View answerThe data available to DCEDIY indicates that early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. It is important to note the complexity and nuance involved in analysing capacity. At the most basic level, not all early learning and childcare places are the same – they may be offered for varying number of hours per day, weeks per year and for different age groups of children. Notwithstanding that complexity, a number of data sources strongly point to increasing supply of places including Pobal Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey data; Core Funding administrative data; and Tusla registration data. Pobal Sector Profile data provides insights into the number of enrolments and vacancies by age group from which capacity can be generated.
Each year Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile Survey. Data from the 2022/23 Annual Early Years Sector Profile estimated that there were 213,514 children enrolled in early learning and school age childcare nationally. This represents an 8% increase from 197,210 in the previous year. The data also indicates that 48% of services had a waiting list and 51% had at least one vacant place.
Vacancies in early learning and childcare can exist where there is space to include additional children in a room within the existing staff allocation. However, because of different care offerings operating across services, vacancies might be counted in different ways. For example some services will offer both morning and afternoon ECCE sessions and some might offer part-week attendance meaning that more than one child could avail of the same full time place.
Data for vacant places and capacity are not mutually exclusive across age groups (one vacancy could be available to more than one age group). Combining figures across age groups may therefore include duplicate data.
The estimated capacity by age group data for the 2022/23 programme year is as follows:
|
Age range* |
Number of children enrolled |
Number of vacant places |
Capacity |
|
1+ to 2 years (13-24 months) |
13,340 |
796 |
14,136 |
|
2+ to 3 years (25-36 months) |
24,640 |
2,526 |
27,166 |
|
3+ to 4 years (37-48 months) |
54,567 |
7,022 |
61,589 |
|
4+ to 5 years (49-60 months) Non-school going |
47,599 |
4,869 |
52,468 |
|
4+ to 5 years (49-60 months) School going |
12,150 |
3,020 |
15,170 |
|
5+ to 6 years (61-72 months) Non-school going |
6,298 |
1,233 |
7,532 |
|
5+ to 6 years (61-72 months) School going |
15,849 |
3,670 |
19,519 |
|
6+ to 8 years (73-96 months) |
18,098 |
3,449 |
21,546 |
|
8 years + |
18,064 |
3,074 |
21,138 |
Notes: Published data are available at www.pobal.ie/childcare/capacity/. *Estimated data for 0-1 is not available as the accuracy of estimations could not be guaranteed due to sample size. Reported data from n=3,856 services indicate 2,220 children enrolled, 223 vacant places and a capacity for that age group of 2,443 within the services who responded to the survey.
Capacity provision is increasing in terms of number of services opening and the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering.
Analysis of Core Funding data indicates that the increased capacity is the type of capacity that is in highest demand relative to supply (i.e. places for younger children as well as school-age places).
Further, Government has committed to increasing the number of places available to children under 3 to 60,000 places by 2028. A range of initiatives are underway through the Department to progress the realisation of this target.
