Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 January 2026
170. Deputy Joanna Byrne asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early learning and childcare providers in County Louth which have sought supports through the existing case management process, where her Departments City/County Childcare Committees and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to services experiencing difficulties in 2025. [6683/26]
Amharc ar fhreagra22 unique services were discussed at Case Management meetings with a view to providing appropriate non-financial support throughout 2025. The Department did not receive any sustainability funding requests from Louth based services. As a result, no service provider based in Louth has received sustainability funding during this timeframe. While no service has been provided with sustainability funding, Louth County Childcare Committee (CCC) and Pobal work together to offer non-financial support to services. This support can take the form of assisting services with analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, general operational supports for Core Funding Partner services, as well as more specialised advice and assistance appropriate to individual circumstances. It is worth noting that most assistance provided to early learning and childcare services are provided by the CCC without referral from the Department.
Since 2017, the Department has offered Sustainability Funding to community early learning and childcare services in crisis. In 2018, a Sustainability Funding policy was formalised, and a framework was created which coupled this Sustainability Funding with on-the-ground case management assistance. The purpose of the supports within this framework were to provide emergency funding to community services where a need for funding was identified while also ensuring that the case management performed at a service level identified and resolved underlying issues that may have caused the initial crisis.
As part of the Case Management process, CCC assist services with issues and difficulties that arise. The CCC may refer Core Funding Partner services facing difficulties to Pobal and the Department to be considered for Sustainability Funding. Sustainability Funding is intended to prevent significant issues that threaten the viability of a service.
The Department encourages all services experiencing difficulties to contact their local CCC with a request for assistance, their CCC can advise on a range of issues and can provide assistance in accessing case management supports. Contact details for the CCC can be found online on gov.ie by searching City and County Childcare Committees.
