As a former Minister for Education and Science and someone who pioneered in the areas of early years education, the Taoiseach, like me, would agree that childcare is an important piece of social infrastructure. Coming from a constituency like mine where we have rapidly growing communities and 75% of demand for childcare is for the age range of between one and three, it is very clear that planning guidelines around leaving spaces for childcare have not worked. In the South Dublin County Council area over the last ten years, of the last 22 permissions that had a crèche granted as a condition of planning, only three had delivered operational childcare.

I welcome the commitment in the programme for Government that a forward planning unit is being established in the Department of children. Will it be resourced and set up in the same way as the forward planning unit in the Department of education? Will it work proactively with local authorities in the context of the formation of the county development plans to identify sites for future childcare facilities, building on the commitment the State has demonstrated in the NDP through the building blocks fund for the provision of this very crucial piece of social infrastructure for families right across the country?

First, I thank the Deputy for his comment. I think it is a very fair point in terms of the need for a forward planning unit in the Department of children. There is one now to identify the gaps and the needs of a growing population for childcare services. It will be resourced. It has been a success and impactful in the Department of education relative to the situation prior to that, when perhaps there was not as focused an approach to planning ahead in terms of changing demographics and so forth. The short answer is "Yes", and this is something we are equally anxious to do.