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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Core funding has been in operation since 15 September 2022 and has achieved significant successes in terms of the high level of participation we are seeing. Right now, 4,632 services nationwide are eligible to partake in the core funding scheme. Of those, 4,369 are partner services, meaning 267 services have not signed up to core funding. We allocated €259 million to core funding in the first year, in which there was a 95% uptake. We grew core funding in year 2 to €287 million, which is what we have for core funding this year, and there was a 94.5% uptake, reflecting a decrease of 0.5% in the uptake between year 1 and year 2. In real terms, there was an increase in the number of services, given the overall number of services grew. These figures reflect greater engagement with the scheme in year 2 and, as I said, the numbers continue to grow.

My Department is very happy with the high level of engagement. Obviously, we cannot force services into the scheme, but every mechanism is being used to make the scheme attractive and encourage more providers to enter it. We have again grown the overall budget for year 3, with a very significant 15% increase. There will be €331 million in year 3, starting in September of this year, which is an increase far beyond the existing rates of inflation, recognising the pressures services face and the fact the number of services participating is growing, which is helping us to deal with that capacity issue the Deputy and I have spoken about previously. The additional money in year 3 will allow us to make certain enhancements to the scheme, and I am especially interested in what we can do to support the smallest services.

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