Dr. Anne-Marie Brooks:

I am sure some of my colleagues will want to come in on this.

Most services have a multiple of funding sources: the ECCE programme is one, the national childcare scheme is a second, core funding, AIM, and the soon-to-be equal participation model, EPM, but also many of the services are funded through parental fees. It is a combination of all of them.

In 2018, we did an independent review of the cost of delivering early learning and childcare to understand what the cost drivers are but also the cost breakdown. Regarding the delivery of childcare, the key cost driver is staff costs, which is around 70% of the cost of delivery. That kind of percentage holds regardless of whether a service is small or large, by and large, and whether they are operating in Dublin or in other parts of the country. Those data informed, among other things, the allocation for core funding. However, core funding is just one element of the funding streams a provider can get. Core funding is allocated on the basis of staffed capacity. If you are offering a baby room, for example, you would get more money in core funding because that reflects the higher cost of delivery for a baby room by virtue of the staff ratios. If you are operating for 52 weeks rather than for 38 weeks of the year, you would get more money in core funding because you have higher costs, most likely tied into the staffing requirements of that provision. Similarly, there is a sliding scale in respect of core funding. The core funding is less for services operating sessional rooms with a 1:11 ratio because the staffing costs are less. The cost of delivery is less by virtue of the regulation. Those data go into informing the core funding allocation model but there is much broader funding available for providers to operate, and the fee charged by providers takes that into account.