191. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality when she intends to publish details of the DCDE mapping of existing early learning and care services against projected need, to show the gaps in each county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29085/26]

A forward planning model has been developed by officials in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality to better understand the nature of early learning and childcare supply/demand misalignment and to inform decision making about capital investment. Analysis is ongoing of the data in this model in order to identify areas of greatest undersupply.

The analysis of the Forward Planning model provides 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 forward planning model has been developed to provide analysis to the division for internal purposes, particularly to inform consideration of capital investment projects as well as wider supply planning.

The publication of any data or outputs has been considered in light of potential commercial impacts, the negotiating position of the Department, and the sensitivity of personal information that is contained in or could possibly be derived from the data. There is significant risk in making the data available more widely that it will contribute to price inflation of early learning and childcare properties in areas of high future demand which is likely to result in greater costs both for the State and other interested parties.

Aggregated childcare demand and capacity data, including data on enrolments, vacancies and waiting lists, is available on the www.pobal.ie/childcare/capacity/ Data on population and on expected future trends in population is available from the www.cso.ie/en/and the ESRI.