Early Childhood Care and Education

80. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality for an update on her work on the early learning and childcare planning matters working group regarding a review of the 2001 planning guidelines for local authorities on early learning and childcare settings. [78614/26]

The 2001 planning guidelines for local authorities on childcare facilities were issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The guidelines are intended to ensure a consistent approach to the treatment of planning applications in respect of the land use planning aspects of early learning and childcare provision. The programme for Government commits to reviewing the guidelines to ensure sufficient and appropriate early learning and childcare places are provided and operationalised. The Planning and Development Act 2024, the revised national planning framework and the ongoing work on Shaping the Future, the phase 2 action plan for the early learning and childcare sector, provide the foundation for this work. Successor guidance for local authorities and childcare facilities will take the form of a national planning statement to be made by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage under that Act. In order to progress the programme for Government commitment, an early learning and childcare planning matters working group was established in 2024 and has met a number of times since. It includes officials from the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Education and Youth. Members of the group have also met with local authority planning officials, nominated by the County and City Management Association planning and land use committee, to identify considerations for the review. These include ensuring that buildings required by the guidelines meet the needs of the local population and are fit for purpose and balancing the need to ensure sufficient provision for children and families, regardless of the size or housing type of the development, with ensuring that buildings are effectively operated as intended. They will inform part of a wider engagement with local authorities and other stakeholders, which is at planning stage.

I really welcome the Minister of State's update. It is very important that the Department of children should be a designated prescribed body in respect of planning applications by housing developers. I see in my area of Meath West how necessary and how positive is the delivery of childcare facilities in housing developments. Cookies Early Learning Centre in Athboy, which I visited shortly before it opened, is a great example of a developer-delivered high-quality childcare facility. Little Harvard is to open a facility in Effernock in Trim in the new year, which is more eagerly anticipated than Christmas by the residents there with young children. It is important to ensure developers are delivering childcare infrastructure in the way they should. Does the Department have access to fully up-to-date and accurate data on childcare needs in particular areas? Will the officials talk to the city and county childcare committees before they respond to planning applications?

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has confirmed that the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality will be designated as a prescribed body to be notified by planning authorities of planning applications where it appears that the development would likely give rise to significant additional demand for early learning and childcare provision. That change will be given effect in regulations to be made by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage under the 2024 Act following the commencement of the relevant sections of the Act. The Department of housing recently advised that the process of commencement has, unfortunately, been deferred due to circumstances beyond its control. We are engaging very tightly with that Department on this matter. It is very important that our Department be made a prescribed body. As the Deputy rightly said, city and county childcare committees, local authorities and, indeed, my Department need access to information, which would include data on child benefit payments and births. There is a wealth of information out there that should be available to guide decisions relevant to demographic changes in different areas.