Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There has been extensive engagement with the FECP and the Department at ministerial and senior official levels in 2022 and 2023. The federation is represented on the early learning and child care stakeholder forum which met six times in 2022, and three times this year to date. The FECP also participated in the provider representative subgroup of the forum, which focused specifically on core funding in 2022. The subgroup met six times over summer 2022. Furthermore, a technical briefing was also facilitated by the Department on the core funding application process on 4 August, at which representatives of a FECP were in attendance.

Since coming into office, the Minister has met with the FECP on eight occasions, two meetings having taken place this year. There has also been frequent email correspondence and telephone communication and the Deputy will surely agree that is very important to keep the lines of communication open. As well as this, the Minister has committed to developing an action plan for administrative and regulatory simplification. A call for expressions of interest to contribute to this work has issued to representative groups, including the FECP.

To date, more than 93% of eligible providers have now signed up to core funding, with the second year of the scheme in operation since September 2023. I will bring back the Deputy's concerns to the Minister.

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