Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I confirm there is a significant increase through core funding. It is going to €350 million for the 2025-26 year, which is a hugely significantly amount of resource provided by the State. As I said previously, 92% of providers are participating in the core funding model. In its entirety, if we look at the last three years and going into this following year, almost €1 billion is being expended by the State here. It is a real surety for providers that this funding is being made available. It is important to say when we talk about closures and the threat of closures that we have had lowest level of closures ever in the system over the past six years.

The Deputy is 100% correct that the most important thing here is to ensure that those who work in the sector are suitably recompensed for working in the sector because if we do not have the workers then the providers cannot provide the service and parents cannot ensure their children are being cared for.

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