Early Childhood Care and Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
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Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West

I thank the Deputy for raising this Topical Issue matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley. The Minister would like to thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising this important issue and for offering her the opportunity to respond. I will deliver her response to the Deputy. Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government. Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the annual early years sector profile shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by 25% over the last three years. I believe that Fingal increased by 20% in the same period. The reality is that demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children.
A forward planning model is in development which will be central to the Department's plans to achieve the policy goals set out in the programme for Government to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood learning and childcare system, with State-led facilities adding capacity. That model seeks to identify the nature and volume of different types of early learning and childcare places across the country and how that aligns with the numbers of children in the corresponding age cohorts. That will be done at local area level.
The Department continues to support the ongoing development an resourcing of core funding, which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. Core funding, which is in its fourth programme year, funds services based on the number of places available. This provides stability to services, and reduces the risk associated with opening a new service or expanding an already existing service. The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The building blocks extension grant scheme is designed to increase capacity in the one to three-year-old, pre-early childhood care and education age range for full daycare. That is to support the parents who the Deputy specifically mentioned in his own contribution.
Core funding partner services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or, in the case of community services, to construct or purchase new premises. The scheme will deliver up to 1,500 full-day care places for the one to three-year-old age category. The Minister recently announced €135 million in capital investment in buildings for high-quality, accessible State-led early learning and childcare. The process will begin this year with investment in buildings in what will be a ground-breaking initiative for this Government. Capital funding will be used to acquire and-or fit out the building, depending on requirements. Services will be operated on a not-for-profit basis by third parties. Where a project is being considered without an operator already in place, the Department will run a process to identify an appropriate not-for-profit operator, with capacity to operate a high-quality service.
There will be a particular focus in the new State-led facilities on providing places for one to three-year-olds because this is where the need is greatest, with scope for these children to progress in the service until they start school. The aim of delivering additional supply of this kind in suitable locations will include both rural areas and urban areas which are not well served at the moment. Additional supply in areas of disadvantage is another priority because early learning can have really positive impacts on children at risk of disadvantage. Another factor to consider is the need to rebalance supply in some areas where there is a high concentration of private supply but very low levels of community childcare. That is what the Deputy outlined in his contribution, with regard to his constituency, Dublin Fingal West.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26