Minister Norma Foley – TD is delighted to announce that additional funding of €100,000 has been secured, on top of last year’s allocation of €250,000, to reflect the growth of Parent and Toddler groups in recent years. The funding can be used for a variety of purposes including children’s toys, […]

Minister Norma Foley – TD today announced the opening of the 2025 Childminding Development Grant. The grant aims to support childminders to enhance quality and safety in their service through the purchase of toys, childcare equipment, safety equipment, equipment to support inclusion and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths (STEAM) […]

Roderic O’Gorman TD today published the 2024 edition of the State of the Nation’s Children (SONC) report. Some of the key findings in the report include: • In 2024, it is estimated that there were 1,232,714 children living in Ireland. This accounted for 22.9% of the total population. Of these […]

New Garda Vetting procedures for the ELC and SAC Sector will come into effect on 1 February 2025. Please see the link below for further information:

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth  welcomes the launch of a toolkit for including children from birth to 5 years in decision-making. The toolkit has been published by Hub na nÓg, the national centre of excellence and coordination in children and young people’s participation in decision making, […]

Minister Roderic O’Gorman TD has today announced the launch of the €25m Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme for early learning and childcare providers. The Building Blocks Extension Scheme will deliver additional capacity by supporting existing early learning and childcare Core Funding partner services to extend their premises. It will also […]

New figures show how the Government’s free pre-school programme – the Early Childhood Care and Education or ECCE programme – has transformed early learning experiences and development opportunities for young children in this country. Full press release can be accessed here

Today, Minister O’Gorman published Introductory Guidelines to Support the Inclusion of Autistic Children in Early Learning and Care, School-Age Childcare and Childminding Settings. The Guidelines are for early years educators, school-age childcare practitioners and childminders who are currently working to support the meaningful inclusion of autistic children in early learning […]

Minister Roderic O’Gorman TD welcomes strong commitment from Early Learning and Childcare services to Core Funding for third year running with over 90% of services now signed up. For the third year of operation, Core Funding has increased by 15% to €331 million. The full Press Release can be read […]

Find out more about what the DCEDIY  #Budget2025 package might mean for you here: https://brnw.ch/21wNm7i