2816. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of registered childcare places in Cork county; the net increase or decreases in childcare places since 2022; the number of service closures for Cork county in each years from 2022 to 2025 and to date in 2026; the number of services currently operating at full capacity in Cork county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55938/26]

Each year, Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile. Data for the Early Years Sector Profile is typically captured in May/June of each programme year. While ELC and SAC offerings vary across service providers and the allocation of ELC of SAC places is flexible, the published capacity data provides an estimate of the number of children enrolled in ELC and SAC, the percentage of services with at least one vacant place and the percentage of services operating a waiting list at a given time.

The most recent published capacity data for the 2024/25 programme year estimated that there were 17,025 children enrolled in ELC and SAC services in Cork County, a 24% increase from 13,737 in the 2021/22 programme year. In Cork City, estimated enrolments in ELC and SAC services increased by 21%, from 7,131 in the 2021/22 programme year to 8,613 estimated enrolments in the 2024/25 programme year.

Data for the 2024/25 programme year also indicated that 57% of services in Cork County reported that they had no vacant places at the time of the survey, 31% reported operating a waiting list and 43% reported having at least one vacant place. In Cork City, 60% of services reported that they had no vacant places at the time of the survey, 42% reported operating a waiting list and 40% reported having at least one vacant place.

As part of the early years sector profile survey, providers are asked whether they operate a waiting list and, where applicable, the number of entries on a waiting list for a place for their service. While this data can be used to give an indication of demand, it should not be used as a measure of overall demand for ELC or SAC places as it is vulnerable to overestimating the actual number of children requiring a place. An individual child may be on multiple waiting lists in different services and may remain on one or multiple service lists after taking up a place.

Further information can be found on the Early Learning and Childcare data website: www.pobal.ie/data-library/early-learning-and-childcare-data/. The Capacity Section of the website provides information on the number of children enrolled, services with vacant places, and services with a waiting list.

In line with the requirements of the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations , 2016, the Child Care Act, 1991 (Early Year Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018 and the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Childminding Services) Regulations 2024, those wishing to operate a preschool, school age or child minding early years service are required to register with Tusla. Each year a number of early years services also decide to close of their own volition. Where these services close, they are also required, in line with these statutory provisions to notify Tusla of their planned closure.

All data collected by Tusla, including information relating to new registrations and reported cessations is collated and verified on a rolling basis. It must be noted however that where a facility that was providing both pre-school and school age services closes fully, the reported cessations will be counted twice in the following figures (once in the pre-school table and once in the school age table), as pre-school services and school age services are regulated separately and are maintained on separate registers as separate services. Additionally, Childminding Services Regulations only became operative in September 2024 with a statutory transition period of three years ending in September 2027. As such registration is not mandatory until the end of this transition period.

For the purposes of registration in line with the statutory requirements outlined above, Tusla records the maximum number of children which the provider can accommodate in their service at any one time, in line with prescribed statutory criteria. It is important to note that this does not equate to the number of actual children in attendance. This is an upper limit in which a service is approved to operate and it is for individual services to determine their own capacity which may be below this limit in line with their own service provision constraints. While the number of children in attendance in individual early years services is noted on inspection, this data is not collated centrally, and therefore the Early Years Inspectorate is unable to address this portion of the Deputy’s query, relating to early year service capacity or number of childcare places.

On this basis, the requested data which is available for the period January 2020 – end of June 2026 is presented as follows: