Childcare Services

87. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality for an update on the review of the 2001 planning guidelines for local authorities on early learning and childcare settings. [78254/26]

I am seeking an update on the review of the 2001 planning guidelines for childcare facilities. They are now 25 years old. We need a date by which they will be replaced and a system put in place that ensures childcare spaces are provided and put to use. Will the Minister of State update the House on the plans for the review?

The 2001 planning guidelines for local authorities on childcare facilities were, as the Deputy will be aware, 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 these guidelines to ensure sufficient and appropriate early learning and childcare spaces are provided and operationalised. The Planning and Development Act 2024, the new revised national planning framework and the ongoing work on phase 2 of the action plan for the early learning and childcare sector, Shaping the Future, will provide a 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 the Planning and Development Act 2024. 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. It includes officials from our Department, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Education and Youth. Members of the group have also met local authority planning officials, who were nominated by the County and City Management Association, CCMA, in particular in its 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, are fit for purpose and balance 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 operating as intended. These issues will inform wider engagement with local authorities and other stakeholders, which is at a planning stage, but the timing of a national planning statement to replace the 2001 guidelines will be determined by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Our Department will continue to engage extensively with the Minister to discuss how best to support the implementation of existing guidelines and inform the drafting of revised ones.

I am seeking clarity as to whether the new approach is going to be outlined in the phase 2 action plan or if it will come separately from the Minister for housing. It is positive that the Government has ring-fenced €135 million for State-led provision of childcare facilities. That is one pipeline, but this is a pipeline that is connected to the delivery of housing and we are seeing the delivery of housing. The longer we wait, the more opportunities we lose. As for what that looks like, it might mean developments under 75 homes not being taken into consideration for the need for childcare. In my area, it might mean crèches that were supposed to be built not being built, or empty units in areas where people are crying out for childcare.

I thank the Deputy for her advocacy on this issue. I understand she has a Private Members' Bill on a similar matter. She is doing much work in this area for families not just in her community but in growing communities like my own. I thank her for that. To be clear, the new approach will be given effect through the new planning statement. That is up to the Minister for housing and local government to deliver. Separately, I think the Deputy would be interested to hear that the Department has been liaising with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage about the planning process in general, as set out under the Planning and Development Act. We have confirmation 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 will give rise to significant additional demand for early learning and childcare provision. Deputy Currie has described to us what happens when new estates are being built, new families are moving into an area and when new families are growing and new babies are being born in new estates. This will ensure that our Department has visibility on that and can act accordingly.

I got that update through a written parliamentary question reply and I welcome it. Has it become operational? To give an example, in my area, Castlefield Hall, a crèche was to be built in an estate with more than 100 homes. People in that estate and other estates were excited about having a crèche but then somebody else bought that land, put in a planning application that reduced the size of the crèche and put in housing with it. These are the kinds of planning interventions that are required by the Minister because we are now losing childcare places where there was an established need that had already been granted but was not delivered. The children in that estate are missing out and will not get that time back. These are the practical issues that need to be addressed.

The Deputy is right that these practical issues do need to be addressed. That is what the collaboration between our Department and the Department of housing and local government is about addressing. We need to break down those silos and ensure that any decisions made from a planning perspective have cognisance of where we are coming from in wanting to support children, childcare and parents. The Deputy asked whether that change has happened yet. It has not. That change will be given effect through regulation. That regulation needs to be made by the Minister for housing and local government. We are engaging extensively with him to ensure that when that regulation comes in, it will be watertight and give us exactly the opportunity we need to deliver the change the Deputy is asking for.