Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 April 2024
88. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on the unmet need for childcare places, the uptake of the new capital scheme which he has published and his future plans for the sector. [19053/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis question relates to what the Minister just said and asks him to provide an update on the unmet need for childcare places, the uptake of the new capital scheme which he has published and his future plans for that sector. It has to do with housing estates being built around the country but no childcare places being provided in those estates. In some instances, parents are not able to go to work because they cannot find anybody to mind their child. Ideally, these childcare places would be very local and people would be able to walk to them with their child. They also have to be of scale in order to work properly.
I thank the Deputy. Ensuring high-quality early learning and childcare is affordable and accessible is a policy priority. The range of data available to my Department indicates that supply of early learning and childcare is increasing but I also recognise there are parts of the country where there are real capacity challenges.
The latest early years sector profile survey showed that, between 2021-22 and 2022-23, the estimated number of enrolments in services rose by 8%, from 197,210 to 213,154. Core funding data also provides evidence of increased capacity between year 1 and year 2 of the scheme, with the capacity growth in excess of 3%. Data from the Tusla register shows that, last year, we had the largest increase in new services in recent years, a smaller number of closures and a net increase in the overall number of services, to 125. That was significant last year.
At the same time, demand is increasing, particularly for full-time places and for children under the age of three. This increase in demand is driven by the major progress on affordability of provision, with the introduction and extension of the national childcare scheme subsidies and the establishment of the fee freeze through core funding. The Building Blocks capacity grant I announced last year is one of a number of measures that will respond to this unmet demand, with funding under this grant split into two strands. Applications for the first strand, namely, the Building Blocks expansion grant scheme for the renovation or reconfiguration of existing facilities to deliver additional capacity, are now closed. Pobal is currently appraising applications and I hope to announce the list of successful applicants next month. I will announce details of the significantly larger Building Blocks expansion grant scheme next month. Under this scheme, grants will be available to early learning and childcare providers to physically extend their services to deliver additional capacity, particularly looking at children from the ages of one to three.
Regarding housing estates and new housing estates, officials from my Department and the Department of housing met last week and a working group is being established to progress co-ordination of planning matters related to early learning and childcare.
I thank the Minister for his response and congratulate him on the work that is going on there. If I am correct, the current schemes only support expansions, not startups. If somebody wants to start from scratch and build a childcare facility, is there any support for that? Has the Minister asked the local childcare committees to conduct an assessment of local need? If not, will he do so and publish the results to find out what the need is in each area where the childcare committees operate? What is the Minister's estimate of the future need for additional places as we go forward? Is it going up or going down? Are there areas in the country that are red on the Department's map where the need will be fairly strong and other areas where the need falls? What does a childcare provider do when told the facilities being used can no longer be used? I have an example of this myself in the case of a small school where a childcare provider was told it would be out in September as the facility was needed for the school's own students. What can that childcare provider do to provide places and a facility? How can the Minister provide assistance?
I raise very similar concerns to the issues raised by Deputy Stanton. In the case of the naíonra in Tramore, it applied for that previous loan. It needed significant capital investment to maintain what has been an outstanding service for the past 30 years. Similarly, we see the number of housing estates cropping up all across the city and in Tramore. We are already at capacity within the town or city. Where are those children going to go? There is a bigger question if the State does want to make this capital investment. The margin of return on these crèches or early learning facilities is not really sufficient to make it stack up if you are trying to pay back a mortgage. If the State is taking a significant capital stake, that points to the next question of where the State lies in terms of the actual provision of the services as well. Certainly, we need to see more attention on the capital side to make sure we are building capacity.
I spoke to the Minister last week regarding the Before 5 childcare facility in Churchfield. It had a preschool, after-school care, a crèche and adult education. It had everything and was in a DEIS area in the heart of Churchfield and Gurranabraher. It has closed down but €364,000 will get it open. That would get hundreds of kids into childcare in our community but we cannot get the money. The people of Churchfield and Gurranabraher deserve answers. The children deserve answers. I had a parent in with me during the week. She has a child with additional needs who cannot settle in the school she has to travel to out in Blarney. I do not know if the Minister knows Cork that well but the child had to go out from Churchfield out to Blarney and in the end, the child gave up. If we do not get the Before 5 centre open in September, where is that child going to go? That mother is at her wit's end because she also has two younger children. All she is looking for is help. Will the Minister give a commitment to give the capital funding? Like the other Deputies, we need extra capacity and childcare and we need the Before 5 centre open. I ask him to give that commitment here.
I thank the Deputies very much. I have a lot to address in one minute. Deputies Ó Cathasaigh and Gould raised the issue of the Before 5 centre and indeed the Tánaiste has raised it with me as well. As I explained to the Deputies, right now our capital funding schemes are for expansions. The situation with the Before 5 centre is where we have an existing service that needs capital to keep going what it has at the moment. We are looking to see if there is a way of repurposing some of our existing capital to a fund that would be a kind of sustainability capital fund. I am working on that at the moment. I will be honest with the Deputy that I cannot give any absolute guarantees for one service but I am aware that there are services, like the one the Deputy has just spoken to, that have a need.
As I said, the Tánaiste has raised this with me as well, so we are working to see if there is a solution. That is as much as I can say to Deputy Gould on that point.
A supply management unit is being developed for my Department. It is a bit like the forward-planning unit in the Department of Education. We talk to the CCCs all the time but it is not done on that properly structured basis, so the idea is a supply management unit, and then we can feed into county development plans. My Department will start making direct submissions to county development plans. The two streams of funding for which we have approval to date are about expansion of existing services, but I am aware that there is a gap there as regards brand-new services and the costs there. As we go forward, and particularly in the 2025-26 capital funding year, I will look to put in place mechanisms for capital funding to support brand-new services as well. The Department is looking at that, and that is the next step in our capital programme.
I thank the Minister for that. I emphasise the need for a fund for start-ups. Right now, as colleagues have said, there are problems around the country where there is no provision. Feeding into the county development plan is a great idea, but my worry is that the county development plan in County Cork was published just last year, so it will be another four years before we will see action there.
May I ask the Minister about co-operation with schools on provision? The populations of some of our primary schools are dropping now, and they have extra rooms, which might help. What level of co-operation is there with primary schools, and should the Department and the Department of Education plan together for the needs of children as to what seems to be a rigid demarcation which now exists?
The Cabinet committee on children, education and disability met two weeks ago. I presented on capacity, and this is one of the issues I flagged. There are guidelines for the use of school buildings, and we would certainly encourage as robust language as possible there. There are two elements here. There are after-school services and there are services that may run at the same time as school. A school may have been able to give a class for ECCE, for example, but may now have expanded, and that is a really difficult situation. I strongly believe we should use classrooms for after-school services. There is an absolute synergy there. Public buildings should be used for the service, whether it is community or private. It is a really good synergy.
Again, we will submit to the Department of Education to put strong language in there. Obviously, boards of management have ultimate decision-making. I have encountered reluctance in my own constituency but, particularly for after-school services, it is a no-brainer. Why have that classroom sitting vacant for three hours in the afternoon?
