Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the past few weeks I have had numerous phone calls from constituents expressing their grave concern about the new core funding model for early learning and care and school-age childcare providers. On 7 March the Minister announced this €221 million core funding scheme. This announcement was welcomed by parents and providers alike. Among its benefits will be improved affordability for parents supporting the employment of graduate staff and improved sustainability and stability for services. However, for many of the smaller ECCE providers this new core funding scheme will militate against their very survival. It will mean in most cases that smaller preschools will receive even less funding than they had been heretofore and their businesses will no longer be viable. In Bandon, for example, there are seven early childhood education providers and four of these are likely to close by September due to this new funding model. This is replicated throughout the country and will affect every village and town. While the new core funding scheme will benefit the larger provider, it will strip the ECCE providers of vital funding such as the higher capitation they had been receiving for employing level 7 and 8 graduates. It will also remove the programme support payments for non-contact hours. The new core funding contracts are calculated over a 52-week period instead of the existing 38-week model. This will mean small and medium business providers that are creating employment within their communities will be unable to sign on over the summer months while they are out of work. The very high insurance premiums and rising electricity and heating costs will further impact on the smaller providers.

Let me put this in context for the Minister. In my own county alone, there are 440 ECCE providers. Of these, more than half are ECCE-only services. This figure is replicated in every county in Ireland so more than half of our preschools will be forced to close as a result of this new core funding model. Hundreds of workers will lose their jobs and many hundreds of preschool children will be without places. Working parents will be faced with either having to stay at home or travelling outside their own community to find a preschool for their children.

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