Childcare Services

Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Questions (900, 901)

Joanna Byrne

Question:

900. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare places currently available in Louth. [2229/25]

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901. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of applications received from families in Louth for childcare places for the years 2020 to 2025 respectively. [2230/25]

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Written answers

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

I propose to take Questions Nos. 900 and 901 together.

Data on the number of children enrolled in ELC and SAC services is compiled each year by Pobal as part of the Early Years Sector Profile.

The most recently available capacity data for the 2022/23 programme year estimated that there were 5,278 children enrolled in Louth ELC and SAC services, 39% of services had at least one vacant place, and 58% had a waiting list.

It is important to note that waiting list data can give an indication of levels of demand for places for a given age group or service type. However, waiting list data should not be used as a measure of overall demand as not all services operate a waiting list and an individual child may be on multiple waiting lists in different services.

Applications made by parents to individual services for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) places are managed independently at the individual service level. Data regarding these applications is therefore not available to my Department.

Further information can be found on the Early Learning and Childcare data website. The Capacity section of the website provides information on enrollments and vacancies on services that responded to the survey as well as estimated figures for the overall sector.

Question No. 901 answered with Question No. 900.