Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

The Government is committed to ensuring access to affordable, quality early learning and care and school-age childcare, with an investment of €1.48 billion in the 2026 budget. This funding will allow the Department to build on recent progress in the gradual reduction of fees for parents while also supporting supply and the quality of provision. Budget 2026 enables core funding to continue to support fee control measures and will also allow for growth in the sector. The allocation of core funding in 2026 will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. As well as this, a new maximum fee cap will be set to reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country. Further details of the new lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months. The 2026 allocation for core funding will also support implementation of the recently announced employment regulation orders, which led to a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators from 13 October. There will also be enhancements in year 5 of core funding to improve pay for educators and school-age childcare practitioners with implementation of new employment regulation orders. Further steps will be detailed in the action plan on accessible, high-quality, affordable early learning and care and school-age childcare, which the Department is continuing to develop. The action plan will be informed by a broad consultation process and will set out plans to achieve programme for Government commitments including the commitment to reduce maximum monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government.

I am aware that a small number of service providers have, regrettably, chosen to withdraw from the core funding scheme. However, uptake of core funding remains strong and the the absolute numbers of providers participating in the scheme nationally are at record levels. As of 10 November, there were 4,533 services signed up to core funding, which accounts for over 92.5% of all services and is the highest number of services signed up to core funding since it was launched in 2022. The number continues to grow. In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, I have defined a service that has left core funding as any service that had a gap between contracts for core funding of four or more weeks. While the State cannot mandate providers to participate in the scheme, 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 1 to approximately €437 million in 2026.

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