Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on the matter. I am pleased to confirm that historical fee data is now available on the national childcare service search for fees from the 2021-22 programme year to the present programme year. I acknowledge that this was very important to the Deputy and that he pursued it for some time. The portal hosting this information was originally designed to contain information for the current programme year only. However, the portal was recently upgraded following a concerted effort between the Department and Pobal, the scheme administrator, during a busy period with competing ICT demands due to the commencement of the 2025-26 programme year.

The Department is committed to ensuring information is transparent about fees charged to parents, in line with commitments in the programme for Government. Therefore, this welcome development ensures improved transparency in relation to early learning and childcare fees across the country. I would also like to highlight that in addition to service fees lists, historical and current, the following information is also readily available on the portal: contact details for early learning and childcare services, whether these services are private, community or childminding services; the services calendar, which provides details of services' operating hours per week and operating weeks per year and whether the service offers the ECCE programme; and details with regard to the national childcare scheme, including if it is taking part in the core funding scheme. A key element of the core funding scheme is to improve affordability for parents by ensuring that services have not increased the fees charged to parents above what was charged in September 2021, unless approved by the Department through the fee increase assessment process. While work was ongoing to upload these historic fees lists to the portal, Department officials also delivered a solution to provide access to historic fees list data from 2021-22 to the present through the network of city and county childcare committees. This allowed any individual with fee-related queries to engage with their local city and county childcare committee for additional information and support in understanding fees charged to them.

The network of 30 childcare committees across the country supports parents and guardians to understand their early learning and childcare options and keep an updated directory of early learning and childcare services in their local areas. They can also provide information and support in relation to fees. The contact details for all 30 childcare committees are available at gov.ie.

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