Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I am aware of the facility to which the Deputy refers. As he indicated in the question, Once Upon a Time has regrettably chosen to withdraw four of its ten services from core funding. They are Once Upon a Time services in Ballymount, Dublin 2, Dundrum and Shankill, with six other sites remaining in the core funding. The Department, through the local childcare committee, has engaged directly with the provider in question to highlight the benefits of staying in core funding not only for their services but also for the families who avail of them. The provider has not reversed the decision to date.

Core funding has been designed with maximum participation of providers in mind as reflected in the year-on-year growth of investment in the scheme rising from €259 million in year one to more than €390 million in year four. Moreover, the annual changes to the allocation model and in the conditions attached to the funding has assured that the scheme remains responsive, balancing the needs of providers while seeking also to meet a range of other objectives. Among those objectives is ensuring taxpayers' money is used in a way that sustains services while not excessively increasing private profit.

Core funding translated into €1.5 million in year one of the scheme for Once Upon a Time services. It then rose to €2.1 million in year two and to €2.5 million in year three when all ten of the services in the chain participated. The Department projects that core funding for these services would be in the region of €3.3 million for year four of the scheme which would be an increase of 109% on funding for the chain since 2022. However, Once Upon a Time, regrettably, decided to withdraw four of its ten services from the scheme in year four, forgoing an estimated €1.1 million in core funding for those services.

As core funding is an optional scheme, this company has the autonomy and business freedom to choose not to join core funding, even though this will result in the loss of the significant financial support it offers and the substantial benefits and certainty it brings to the families accessing the services. For this coming programme year Once Upon a Time remains eligible to provide the national childcare scheme, the early childcare and education programme and the community childcare subvention plus saver programme.

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