Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 October 2025
504. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early years and crèche facilities operating in Cork city and county in each of the past ten years; the net change in services over that period; and the actions being taken to address the decline in provision in Cork compared with the reported national increase. [52980/25]
View answerIn line with the requirements of the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations, 2016, the Child Care Act, 1991 (Early Year Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018 and the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Childminding Services) Regulations 2024, those wishing to operate an early years service (whether a preschool, school age or childminding service) are required to register with Tusla.
All data collected by Tusla, including information relating to registrations is collated and verified on a rolling basis. It must be noted that, Childminding Services Regulations only came into effect in September 2024 with a statutory transition period of three years ending in September 2027. As such, registration is not mandatory until the end of this transition period.
On this basis, the requested data is available below showing a breakdown of the number of registered services by service type in County Cork, for the period December 2016 – December 2024, with an additional column detailing the year-on-year variance in respect of the number of services registered. As the register was only established in 2016 it is not possible to provide data on services for 2015. It is also not possible to provide a disaggregated breakdown of services registered within the City and County as all data in respect of early years service registrations is collated on a county by county basis only.
|
Year |
Total Early Years Services in Cork (Pre-school, Standalone School Age and Childminding) |
Net difference Year on Year |
|
2016 |
478 |
|
|
2017 |
479 |
+1 |
|
2018 |
472 |
-7 |
|
2019 |
518* |
+46 |
|
2020 |
516 |
-2 |
|
2021 |
522 |
+6 |
|
2022 |
531 |
+9 |
|
2023 |
544 |
+13 |
|
2024 |
585 |
+41 |
* In 2019, Tusla began registering School aged services under the 2018 School age regulations. Registration data for 2019 did not disaggregate standalone school age services from pre-school services that also operated a school-age service. The data for 2019 is therefore not directly comparable with the later years as the data since 2020 allows disaggregation to avoid double counting of services that provide both pre-school and school-age childcare.
Improving access to quality and affordable Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare is a key priority of Government.
Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% from the 2021/22 programme year. Core Funding application data shows that between Year 1 and Year 3 of the scheme, annual place hours increased by over 15%. However, it appears 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 and Delivery Unit in this Department is pursuing an ambitious programme of work. The unit is developing a forward planning model 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 education and care system, with State-led facilities adding capacity.
This Department continues to support the ongoing development and 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. For the previous programme year, the allocation for Core Funding allowed for a 6% increase in capacity. Additional funding was secured in Budget 2025 to facilitate a further 3.5% increase from September 2025.
The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed to increase capacity. Core Funding Partner services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or to construct or purchase new premises.
This scheme provides €25 million to expand full-day care places for 1 to 3-year-olds. It is expected that up to 1,500 places will be delivered by these projects. Of this number, almost 100 community places will be delivered in Cork.
The Programme for Government commits for the first time to provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. State ownership of facilities is a very substantial and significant development and offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand. This work will be supported through capital investment under the revised National Development Plan.
The approach more widely to ensuring appropriate levels of early learning and childcare supply is being considered by my Department and will be further articulated in the context of the Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system that Government has committed to publishing.
