34. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality her plans to increase capacity in the childcare sector for babies under a year old. [46780/26]

Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government, and is intended to complement other initiatives to support parents to balance working and caring responsibilities.

Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2024/25 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 25% from the 2021/22 programme year. However, it appears that demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children.

Capital investment is one of the approaches that Government uses to support the delivery of additional places.

Capital investment is focused on delivering publicly subsidised supply for early learning and childcare where required, with a focus on places for 1- to 3-year-olds and sufficient places for children to age up in the same service.

There are two main ways in which capital investment is currently delivered for the sector.

The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed to increase capacity of full day places for 1–3-year-olds. Capital funding was available to Core Funding Partner Services to physically extend their premises or, in the case of not-for-profit services, to construct or purchase new premises. The scheme will deliver up to 1,500 places.

A further Building Blocks extension scheme is now open for applications. This round of capital funding will focus on funding extensions to existing premises to allow for increased numbers of children to be offered places on a full-time basis and is open to both community and private providers who are Core Funding partner services.

Separately, I recently announced €135 million of capital investment over the coming five years for State-led services to provide high-quality, accessible early learning and childcare. The process of identifying projects for investment is underway. Up to eight buildings will be selected for investment this year. The State-led early learning and childcare capital programme will provide thousands of places up to 2030.

In alignment with the policy direction articulated in First 5, underpinned by extensive evidence, the State-led early learning and childcare capital programme is focused on the creation of places for children from age 1 upwards, to enable children to participate until they begin primary school.

First 5 is Ireland’s Whole-of-Government Strategy for babies, young children and their families. The Strategy aims to support parents to be at home with their children for the whole of their first year, where the parents choose to. Research suggests that children benefit particularly from parental care in this period and the Strategy sets out this evidence in detail.

The First 5 Strategy has a focus on providing a broader range of options for parents to balance working and caring. Under First 5, parent’s leave and benefit was introduced and has progressively increased from 2019 to date.

From the 1 July 2022, Parent’s leave and benefit was extended to seven weeks per parent. From August 2024 Parent’s Leave and Benefit was increased further to nine weeks per parent per child.

The combined durations of Maternity, Paternity and Parent’s Leave and Benefit now equate to 46 weeks’ paid leave for a two-parent family, supplemented by an entitlement to 16 weeks of unpaid Maternity Leave, and 26 weeks of unpaid parental leave per parent.

The Programme for Government commits to examining the extension of Parent's Leave and Benefit and additional flexibilities.

The new National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030 was published in November 2025. The first Action Plan under the new Strategy is currently being developed and will include actions to support working families in balancing the competing demands of family and work. Any further changes to supports and family leave entitlements will be considered within the context of this action plan and the Phase 3 Implementation Plan of First 5.

Notwithstanding this focus on supporting parents to provide care for the first year, a key priority of the Department is to support improved accessibility to childcare places, including capacity for babies and toddlers.

Core Funding has served as a key vehicle in addressing this insufficiency of supply and making the provision of these places more attractive.

Since its introduction in 2022, Core Funding has provided increased levels of funding to services delivering care to these age ranges, to support these services to meet the higher operational costs created by the higher ratios set out in regulations, and to incentivise increased capacity for babies and younger children under three.

This funding is distributed through the Core Funding base rate which has been incrementally increased over the programme years. The hourly rate underpinned by a place for an individual baby aged 0-1 years for the current programme year (2025/2026) is €1.90 – this represents a 14.5% increase in the hourly rate for this age group, when compared to the 2022/2023 programme year.

In the fifth programme year, early learning and childcare services will see an increase to the base rate for all age groups, with the 0-1 year old cohort attracting a base rate value of €2.01 per hour. This is an increase of €0.11, or 6%, on the current Year 4 levels.

Although higher levels of funding for an individual place are offered for younger age ranges, an individual staff member can ultimately underpin higher amounts of funding for places which cater to older children. While expansion in provision for the older age ranges is welcome and needed, officials in the Department will continue to assess the need to increase funding for the younger age ranges, using the best data available to them to make evidence-informed decisions.