Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Together for Better is the new funding model that supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good. This was recommended by an Expert Group, adopted by Government, and has been widely welcomed by representative groups advocating for parents, children, the workforce and providers.

Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model, the National Childcare Scheme and the new Core Funding scheme, with a fourth programme - Tackling Disadvantage - under development.

Core Funding allows for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector without additional costs being passed on to parents. Core Funding contributes to sustainability by significantly increasing income for the overwhelming majority of services and providing greater funding stability. Already 94% of services have signed up to Core Funding, and the scheme remains open for applications.

Core Funding, by contrast to the other funding schemes, provides payment in respect of the number of child places rather than based on child registrations or attendance. This is a deliberate differentiation of approach, and offers a new, more stable income source that will not fluctuate in line with registrations or attendance. This mixture of supply-side and demand-led public funding provides a welcome balance to the funding model. Core Funding payments are also spread out over the entire programme year, providing more stability of income for services that close for the summer.

I have secured an increase in the Core Funding envelope of €28 million for year two, an 11% increase. The precise allocation of this funding will be informed by emerging data from Year 1 of operation and research currently underway.

My Department, Pobal and the CCCs continue to closely monitor trends concerning services entering case management and will continue to maintain the availability of Sustainability Funding for individual services at risk.