Maeve O'Connell
Question:211. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality her views on her Department’s work to progress the public provision of childcare. [36386/25]
View answerWednesday, 2 July 2025
Questions (211)
Written answers
The Programme for Government commits for the first time to public provision of early learning and childcare through State-led facilities adding capacity in areas where unmet need exists.
State ownership of facilities is a very substantial and significant development and offers the potential to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand.
Early scoping work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of public provision. More detailed and extensive policy development and design is ongoing in order to progress to implementation stage, having regard to the wider emerging policy context as set out in the Programme for Government.
This work is being led by a new Forward Planning and Delivery Unit which has received additional resources. The unit is focused on identifying areas of need, forecasting demand, and planning for the delivery of public supply within the early learning and childcare sector where required.
A key aspect of the preparatory work being undertaken by the unit is the development of a forward planning model. The forward planning model draws on administrative data to map the child population and location of funded services, and GIS mapping tools to model the link between children and available services. This will enable the identification and comparison of areas of need with a consistent methodology.
Allocation of capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities is being considered within the context of the revision to the National Development Plan which is ongoing.
These new initiatives build on the framework for reform of the sector which was set out in Partnership for the Public Good, the 2021 report of an Expert Group which was established to develop a new funding model for the sector. The key theme of the recommendations in the report was to strengthen State involvement and enhanced public management in the sector, in conjunction with increased State funding.
The introduction of the Core Funding scheme and its associated conditionality including in relation to staff pay and fee management; developments to the National Childcare Scheme and the Access and Inclusion Model; and the establishment of Equal Start represent the implementation of several of the specific recommendations in the report and serve as an strong foundation for further work now to deliver State-led early learning and childcare.
The approach to ensuring appropriate levels of early learning and childcare supply, including through State-led facilities, will be further articulated in the context of the Action Plan to build and affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system that the Government is committed to publishing.