Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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505. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there is anything in the terms of the core funding agreement that precludes creche and Montessori schools from applying locally-agreed discounts, including sibling discounts. [53027/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Affordable, accessible, high-quality and sustainable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government. On 15th September, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare. This new funding model will support delivery of ELC and SAC for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families.

Together for Better brings together three major elements, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model, the National Childcare Scheme and Core Funding.

Core Funding is the new funding stream worth €266 million in 2023 to start this partnership for the public good between the State and providers. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.

In June 2022, the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement was published and details the terms and conditions of the Core Funding scheme. Accompanying information and FAQs have been published and widely circulated also. The Funding Agreement is publicly available here: first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/core-funding/

A central condition of Core Funding is that providers agree not to increase fees above those which were charged last year. This gives parents greater certainty about what they will be charged and ensures that increases to NCS subsidies are not absorbed by fee increases. The approach to fee management will be developed further over time.

As a condition of receiving Core Funding, a Partner Service agrees not to increase the fee for any Service Type which was extant on September 30^th2021 or introduce an extra charge for any component of that Service Type. The fees policy for each service is outlined in the Parent Statement, a copy of which must be shared with parents within a 4 weeks of Core Funding beginning or the parent joining the service, whichever is the later.

An increased charge of any kind for an existing and unchanged Service Type will be in breach of Core Funding rules. This also includes circumstances by which a change of fee policy would result in an increase charge to parents, for example, a service that offered a multiple child deduction cannot remove it.

The Funding Agreement states clearly that failure to comply with the terms of the Agreement may result in a service’s exclusion from the Grant, suspension of the Grant, and/or a termination of the Agreement, including remedy of breaches or refund of any excess charges to families.

I would encourage parents to check if their service is one of the 91% operating the scheme and, if so, to request that the service’s Parent Statement be shared. Parents can also contact their local City/County Childcare Committee for support and guidance in relation to the specifics of individual cases.

- The Partner Service list is available here: first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/together-for-better/

- Contact information for City/County Childcare Committee is available here:myccc.ie/