Planning changes will force developers to deliver more creches 

The planning laws requiring developers to provide a childcare facility as part of large housing developments is "not delivering as well as it should", said Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman.

The State will be providing €45m in 2023 to extend current creche facilities or build new ones.

Builders will be blocked from starting further phases of housing developments until creche facilities are up and running, under Government plans to expand the number of creche places.

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman has hit out at the fact that many developers are currently using loopholes to get around State planning laws, meaning creches are either not opening, or in some cases are not even being built as part of large housing developments.

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Separately, Mr O'Gorman will be providing €45m in funding to creche and childcare providers in 2023 to extend current facilities or build new ones in a bid to increase the number of spaces for babies and children.

From January, parents will see the cost of childcare cut by an average of 25% when increased subsidies announced as part of the budget kick in.

However, Mr O'Gorman has acknowledged that making childcare more affordable for families means increased demand for spaces.

He has been consulting with Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien as well as city and county planners to tighten up the current development regulations.

'Attempt to rezone'

"When a developer builds 75 houses, they're meant to also provide a childcare facility — that's not delivering as well as it should," he told the Irish Examiner.

"I'm aware in my own constituency and I know a lot of TDs have come to me with instances where the childcare facility is never built, or the shell is built and it's never opened, or it's built as a house and then there's an attempt to rezone it to get a change-of-use out of it to childcare and back to housing and they sell it as a house.

So there's a whole range of mechanisms that are being used to avoid the delivery of childcare facilities."

Mr O'Gorman said that clearly linking the delivery and opening of childcare facilities in the phasing of a development will be "one of the tools" that the Government will now use to force developers into providing childcare when they build a large number of homes.

Children's Minister Roderic O’Gorman and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Turning to the subsidies that will kick in for parents from next month, Mr O'Gorman said Ireland has not been investing enough in early-years childcare over the decades.

"Obviously, the decrease in fees that will kick in from January 2, this is going to be a major benefit to parents," he said. "It's something the Green Party committed to in our general election manifesto, and it's something I committed to."

However, he said service providers will also be able to draw down capital funding to either increase existing facilities or build new services.

"The introduction of core funding has already increased capacity because services have opened additional capacity because they know the State is coming in with resources," he said.

So we've seen an 8% increase in the number of spaces in baby rooms, they're the ones that are in particularly short supply. 

"It's delivered an 8% increase in their toddler rooms, so that's for the under-threes. They've increased by 23%, the number of spaces, but we do need more childcare services across the country. 

"So I've got a capital investment scheme secured under the National Development Plan. And the second part of that is to extend expand capacity. 

"So next year, in 2023, will be opening up that and there's €45m in that," said Mr O'Gorman.