Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 December 2025
363. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality when the outputs of the childcare forward planning model will be published; the way in which local population growth projections will be incorporated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72844/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraImproving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government.
Despite substantial growth in the capacity of the sector in recent years, demand for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children.
The development of a forward planning model to analyse childcare supply and demand nationally is currently underway. The model seeks to identify the nature and volume of different types of early learning and childcare places across the country and how that aligns with the numbers of children in the corresponding age cohorts at local area level.
An extensive data analysis and cleaning exercise has been undertaken to map available publicly subsidised supply. This involves combining data from multiple administrative sources, including child population data, using GIS (Geographical Information System) mapping tools.
The analysis of the Forward Planning model will provide a key input into the approach to the capital programme to be resourced through the allocation in the revised National Development Plan 2026-30.
The analysis of the forward planning model will be one of a number of factors that will be considered when selecting and prioritising capital investments in childcare. Other factors will also be taken into account, including demographic trends at a local level. Local areas will be analysed to assess the likely future demographic outcomes for the area using data sources such as planning applications, local area plans and statistical population projections.
The Forward Planning model is being designed primarily as a tool for internal analysis. The maps and data that the model will produce will contain protected categories of data and will therefore not be made generally available in full. As the model is further developed along with accompanying policy work related to supply, aggregated statistics, including statistics broken down by geographical area, may be made available if this is deemed compliant with data protection obligations.
Current data on childcare capacity at county level is available at www.pobal.ie/childcare/capacity.
