Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ensuring financial stability of early learning and childcare services is a priority of Government, as demonstrated by State supports provided to the sector throughout the pandemic that were in excess of €1 billion.

A transition fund is now in place to support providers between May and August 2022.

This fund is designed to support the financial stability of services in the period between the end of Covid-19 supports and ahead of the introduction of the new core funding scheme this September while ensuring that fees to parents do not increase.

I am pleased that approximately 96% of providers have signed up to the transition fund. One measure of financial stability of the sector is the number of services that open and close. Current data on service closures and openings are not markedly different to the trend in previous years. Moreover, the data on service closures identify the wide range of reasons for these closures as reported by providers themselves, including retirement of owners or other personal circumstances. Only a minority are reported to be related to financial stability.

These data indicate that the Covid-19 supports and the transition fund have proven successful in providing financial stability to the sector. The main contractual requirement for the transition fund is that fees remain at or below September 2021 levels for the duration of the scheme. This has provided important financial stability to parents. I am encouraged that providers have shown such willingness to work in partnership with the State toward the shared goal of delivering affordable early learning and childcare for families. The high uptake of the transition fund bodes well for the introduction of core funding in September. This is further underscored by the fact that 89% of providers have now completed a survey, which is the first step to coming into contract for core funding. Core funding is open to all eligible providers, subject to their agreement to the recently published funding agreement. Becoming a core funding partner service is, of course, optional but I look forward to a very high proportion of providers becoming partner services.

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