Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 March 2026
232. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality which early education centres are receiving funding in the State; and the total number of children attending at that level; and how many of these centres are providing the service in full Irish and what number of children are involved and can the issue be discussed. [17748/26]
View answerEach year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile. The most recent published data for the 2024/25 programme year indicates that at the time of the survey, May-June 2025, there were 3,901 ELC services with an active contract for a Department funded scheme.
The most recent published capacity data for the 2024/25 programme year estimated that there were 157,092 children enrolled in ELC services nationally.
The Department does not currently hold a directory of naíonraí or Irish-medium settings or a directory of children enrolled in Irish-medium settings. The Annual Early Years Sector Profile collates information about use of the Irish language in services, categorised by whether services are:
wholly Irish-medium settings;
mixed settings where part of the setting is English-medium and part of the setting is Irish-medium;
English-medium settings with some use of Irish;
and wholly English-medium settings.
The most recently published data on use of the Irish language in services for the 2024/25 programme year indicated that, of the ELC services for which data was available, 4% of services were reported to be wholly Irish-medium and 3% of services were reported to be mixed settings where part of the service is Irish-medium.
