Paul Donnelly
Question:20. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if consideration has been given for capital funding for community based not-for-profit childcare facilities. [72882/25]
View answerThursday, 18 December 2025
Questions (20)
Written answers
Capital funding for early learning and childcare investment has been made available through the National Development Plan (NDP).
The most recent NDP announced earlier this year allocated €796 million to the Department for 2026-2030, this includes €197 million capital investment for early learning and childcare.
Early learning and childcare capital from 2026 will primarily be directed towards the implementation of the Programme for Government commitment to build or purchase State-owned early learning and childcare facilities. A proportion of the allocation will be invested in supporting existing early learning and childcare providers to expand their current premises to increase the number of early learning and childcare places they can offer.
Planned investment in existing providers to extend and improve their level of provision follows on from a number of schemes to support the sector in recent years, and in particular to community not-for-profit providers.
The Building Blocks grant programme has operated three schemes to date: the Building Blocks Improvement Grant scheme, which ran in 2023, the Building Blocks Expansion Grant scheme, which ran in 2024 and the Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme, which is currently operating.
Under the Building Blocks Improvement Grant, €9 million was allocated in 2023 in grants ranging from €35,000 to €75,000 for green energy upgrades and retrofit projects for services in need of upgrading. This scheme was open to community and private providers. 151 services were offered funding under the scheme, approximately one third of these were community not-for-profit services.
Under the Building Blocks Expansion Grant Scheme, which operated in 2024, the Department provided grants for the renovation or reconfiguration of existing early learning and childcare facilities to deliver additional capacity. Community based not for profit early learning and childcare services were eligible to apply for funding under this scheme. These services were permitted to apply for full funding of renovation projects, whereas private for profit services were required to demonstrate a 50% contribution to the project. In total, 22 services were awarded funding under the scheme, half of which were community not-for-profit services.
The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is operating over 2025 and 2026. The Scheme has four strands: community extension; private extension; community purchase; and community construction. Three of the four strands were only open to community not-for-profit groups, with substantially greater funding values available and no requirement for co-funding. A total of 78 applications were received with 50 applicants approved to progress to the next stage of the grant process. 43 of these 50 projects are led by community not-for-profit services.
The Department is currently examining options and detailed specifications for future Building Blocks schemes, and I expect to announce details in early 2026.