Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 October 2025
505. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will publish detailed, disaggregated data showing the number of childcare providers entering and leaving the sector nationally and by county each year since 2015, including whether those providers were part of the core funding scheme. [52981/25]
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 services (whether a preschool, school age or childminding service) are required to register with Tusla. Each year a number of early years services decide to close of their own volition. Where these services close, they are also required, in line with these statutory provisions, to notify Tusla of their planned closure.
Data collected by Tusla, including information relating to new registrations and reported cessations, is collated and verified on county-by-county basis.
On this basis, the requested data, which encompasses new registrations and reported cessations of early years services per county for the period December 2016-December 2024, with the annualised net change in the number of registered services, have been set out at the link below. As the pre-school register was only established in 2016, is it not possible to provide data on 2015. Data on school-age services likewise is included since 2019. For childminding, while some childminders were registered prior to 2024, Childminding-specific Regulations have only been in place since September 2024.
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.
It was not feasible, in the time allotted for responding to the Deputy’s question, for officials to disaggregate services that left Core Funding, from providers who left the childcare sector.
However, the Department did undertake an exercise (on 5 August 2025) assessing the levels of withdrawals from Core Funding – since its inception in September 2022.
In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, I have defined a service that left Core Funding as any service that had a gap between contracts for Core Funding of 4 or more weeks. There may be a small number of services who left the scheme and subsequently closed at a later date and are not captured in the figures below.
• 183 services had left the 2022/2023 programme year of Core Funding (Year 1), of which 159 have since rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on 5 August 2025. The other 24 open services who left in the first year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• 303 services had left the 2023/2024 programme year of Core Funding (Year 2), of which 187 have since rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on 5 August 2025. The other 116 open services who left in the second year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• 19 services had left the 2024/2025 programme year of Core Funding (Year 3), of which 10 had rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on 5 August 2025. The other 9 open services who left in the third year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• I am aware that between 5 and 31 August 2025, two additional services reached the end of their notice period and withdrew from Core Funding – one in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and one in Kildare.
In the same exercise, the programme year in which a service first joined Core Funding was assessed.
• 3,964 services that were operating on 5 August 2025 (82%) had joined Core Funding in the first year of the scheme (2022/2023).
• 261 services that were operating on 5 August 2025 (5%) had first joined Core Funding in the second year of the scheme (2023/2024).
• 310 services that were operating on 5 August 2025 (6%) had first joined Core Funding in the third year of the scheme (2024/2025).
• 272 services that were operating on 5 August 2025 (6%) had not joined Core Funding in any of the first three years of the scheme.
