Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 December 2019
323. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the capital allocation of her Department in each of the years 2020 to 2025; and the areas to which funds will be allocated in each year. [52205/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe nature of the Department`s capital investment programme is that of multiannual discreet projects and capital expenditure generally involves the following programme areas:
- Child and Family Agency (Tusla)
- Youth Justice – Oberstown Children Detention Campus
- Early Learning Care and School Age Childcare
- Youth Organisations and Services
The National Development Plan 2018 - 2027 (NDP) published in February 2018 set out the multi annual capital allocations for all Departments out to 2022. The capital allocation for my own Department is as follows:
- 2019: €32 million
- 2020: €31 million
- 2021: €32 million
- 2022: €33 million
The Deputy should note that the capital envelope for my Department has only been allocated up until the end of 2022.
There will be a significant requirement for early learning and care capital investment over the next number of years. This is currently recognised in the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018 – 2027.
The NPF highlights the contribution of early childhood care and education to the important role of childcare provision in terms of underpinning future patterns of labour force participation which will be crucial to sustaining employment growth and to the realisation of the economy’s growth potential over the period of the National Development Plan.
The Government’s commitment to supporting the implementation of this strategy and its objectives is demonstrated by the commitment of €250 million of resources under the National Development Plan for investment in additional childcare provision.
It is likely that €150 million will be required in 2023 and 2024 and used to address immediate capacity issues in available childcare places through targeted, large-scale capital investment and any remaining capital actions required on foot of the Early Years Strategy that have not been addressed by the single-annual capital programmes. The remaining €100m is proposed to be expended between 2025 and 2027 to address remaining demand for capacity and any further emerging concerns.
