Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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227. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if people working within the core funding scheme can be allocated a teaching number to avoid returning the same information every year for validation. [6400/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In September 2022, the new Core Funding scheme was launched as part of Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare.

Core Funding is worth €259 million in full year costs and 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.

To date, 94% of services have signed up. The majority of Core Funding is allocated to Partner Services based on their capacity: the number of child places available, the age group/s of children for whom those places are available and the number of hours of provision. Importantly, Core Funding is based on staffed capacity, meaning there must be enough staff in place to satisfy the minimum staff to child ratios as set in the Regulations. Early Learning and Care services with graduate-led provision and graduate managers are also able to attract a graduate premium under Core Funding.

Due to the nature of the allocation method for Core Funding, it is necessary for the Department to gather and retain information on services and staff, to track allocations, service specifications, the movement of staff, and differences in capacity. Pobal, as Scheme Administrator for Core Funding, requires services to provide this information through the Core Funding application and Service Profiles accessed through the Hive platform. The Hive generates a unique staff identification number, which is service specific, for each staff member that is recorded in the Service Profile.

It is intended that the retention of the data associated with the unique staff identification number on the Hive will remove the requirement for qualifications reassessment on an annual basis. In addition, this data will enable the Department to track changes related to the administration and operation of Core Funding and the public funding in the sector.