Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
88. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if his Department has received communication from the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth requesting additional funding for capital projects for childcare in Cork. [15679/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraInformation regarding the location of applicants and/or beneficiaries of specific project funding should be available from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
In relation to overall funding, the Department of Children, Equality, Integration and Youth have an allocation of 20 million euro for capital projects in the childcare sector in 2024. The funding will go towards the Building Blocks capital programme, with plans in 2024 focused on expanding the capacity of existing services in areas where there is greatest need. My department has sanctioned this funding request.
As the Deputy will be aware this Government has invested significantly in the area of childcare. Total government investment in childcare in 2024 is over 1.1 billion euro. In 2023, the Government met its childcare investment target of 1 billion euro as set out in the First 5 Strategy. This was five years ahead of the planned time frame.
There is good reason for this investment, with research pointing to early childhood care being a key life stage experience with benefits to both cognitive and non-cognitive development.
This investment continues to benefit many of our citizens. At the end of March:
• over 143,000 children were benefiting from the National Childcare Scheme
• over 105,000 were availing of ECCE
• and over 7,000 had registered for the Access and Inclusion Model.
The Government is also supporting the providers in this sector through the Core Funding Model. Core funding is a supply side measure which provides a payment to providers determined by their capacity and qualifications of staff. At the end of March, 4,365 providers were signed up to Core Funding. This is an increase of 3.5% or 151 additional services on the same period last year.
