Minister Joe O’Brien welcomes announcement of €25m in capital funding to deliver thousands of additional early learning and childcare places
New Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme to open for applications in autumn
Grants for early learning and childcare services to increase their capacity by means of large scale extensions
Funding to also be made available for community services to purchase or build new premises
This builds on previous Expansion Grant Scheme in 2024, with 23 services provisionally approved for funding to deliver over 300 new places
Today (Thursday, 4th July 2024) Minister of State for Community Development, Charities and Integration Joe O’Brien welcomes the announcement by Minister Roderic O’Gorman of €25m in capital funding to deliver additional early learning and childcare places.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister Joe O’Brien said:
“I am pleased to see the announcement by Minister O’Gorman of the Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme. This funding will go towards increasing the number of early learning and childcare places around the country, assisting families, communities and providers to support children and foster their development.”
The Scheme will deliver additional capacity for one to three-year-olds by supporting existing early learning and childcare Core Funding partner services, both community and private services, to undertake extensions to their existing premises. It will also fund community-based not-for-profit services who wish to purchase or construct new premises.
The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is part of the wider Building Blocks Capital Programme for Early Learning and Childcare under the revised National Development Plan 2021-2030 (NDP). €25 million will be available for the scheme over 2025 and 2026.
Projects with a value between €100,000 and €650,000 will be eligible and can include:
Extensions to existing premises.
Installation of modular buildings or buildings built using modern methods of construction.
Purchase of early learning and childcare premises (community services only).
Purchase of premises that could be easily adapted for use as early learning and childcare premises (community services only).
Construction of building to house a new early learning and childcare service on ‘greenfield’ or ‘brownfield’ site (community services only).
The Extension Grant scheme follows on from the Expansion Grant scheme which ran earlier this year. Minister O’Gorman also announced that 23 services were successful in the appraisal process under that scheme and their projects have been recommended for funding. Successful services are being contacted directly by Pobal to agree next steps required to proceed to contracting. Grants of between €25,000 and €100,000 have been recommended for projects to undertake renovation or upgrades to existing space to cater for more children. The funding is anticipated to deliver 308 new places for one to three-year-olds.
