Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. He will be aware that the maximum fee caps were extended to all partner services in core funding this month. The introduction of fee caps is an important step towards the reduction of parental fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government. While the fee caps were introduced for new services last year, they now cover all services that are in core funding. In addition, the fee caps are set at a lower level than before. The maximum fee for a full-day place of between 40 and 50 hours per week, which is the most common full-day care service, is €295 per week before State subsidies under the national childcare scheme and the ECCE programme are deducted. For those on the minimum level of subsidy, this will bring their out-of-pocket costs down to less than €200 per week with those on income-assessed subsidies paying less again. While this is an important development for those paying the highest fees, with a median fee of €200 per week nationally, or just €100 after the minimum subsidies are deducted, the reality is many families pay less than this figure.

This latest measure builds on a range of supports already in place. The ECCE programme provides two years of preschool without charge and has participation rates of 96% to 97%. More than 70% of families say that if it were not a free service, they would never have been able to access it. The national childcare scheme complements the ECCE programme, giving universal and targeted subsidies to reduce costs for parents. Recent improvements include the extension of the universal subsidy to children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, now worth €96.30 per week for 45 hours. Almost 220,000 children benefited from a subsidy in 2024. Since last September, children in childminding settings can also benefit from these subsidies. The fee management system introduced through core funding has made sure the investment in affordability is not absorbed by unnecessary fee increases. Core funding has enjoyed high participation rates to date. Currently, the rate of uptake for the upcoming year is 90%.

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