The figure of 10,000 vacancies was derived from the Annual Survey of the Early Years Sectors, which was conducted by Pobal on behalf of my Department. This survey, which was conducted in December 2014 and its findings published in July of this year, yielded a response rate of almost 64 percent.
The figure of 10,000 vacancies represents a conservative estimate of the number of vacancies for sessional services across the country and takes account of national waiting lists figures.
The estimated number of all vacancies in early years services in December 2014 stood at 31,146. 15,737 of these vacancies were for sessional services. When the estimated number of children on a waiting list was taken into account (i.e. 6,912 on a waiting list, of which 2,687 were on a waiting list for a sessional service), the actual number of vacancies for all services and for sessional services only were actually 24,234 and 13,050 respectively.
The expansion of the free pre-school programme is expected to increase the number of children benefiting from around 67,000 to around 127,000, however the higher level of participation will not arise until April 2017.
In order to provide the sector with the time to expand provision to meet demand, a decision was made to implement the new measures from September 2016. This timeframe will allow pre-school providers to make any necessary infrastructural or service changes and to put in place extra staff resources to accommodate the additional demand. The City and County Childcare Committees will be in a position to help parents identify pre-school providers within their area with sufficient capacity to enrol additional children.