My Department funds 30 City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) across the country. Part of their role is to advise my Department on capacity issues and to assist families in securing childcare places, including when a service closes unexpectedly. I would encourage anyone having difficulty in securing a place to make contact with their local CCC immediately. Contact details for all of the CCCs, in addition to other information about the services they provide, may be found on www.myccc.ie
In 2019 I secured €8.86m in capital funding for childcare with the ultimate aim of benefiting parents and children through improving our childcare infrastructure and capacity. A particular focus was to expand service provision for children under three years of age. I made €3.7m available for this age group which will lead to the creation of more than 1,300 additional places before the year end.