Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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523. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the additional cost of increasing the universal national childcare scheme subsidy by €1 and €2, in tabular form. [21050/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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There are two types of subsidies available under the National Childcare Scheme:

• Universal Subsidies are available to all families with children under 15 years old. This subsidy is not means tested and provides €1.40 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week.
• Income Assessed Subsidies are available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years. This subsidy is means tested and will be calculated based on your individual circumstances. Your rate will vary depending on your level of family income, your child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in your family.

• The removal of the practice of deducting hours spent in school pre-school or school from overall NCS hours reward as of May 2022.
• The increase in the upper age eligibility for the NCS universal subsidy from 3 years to all children under 15 years as of August 2022.
• An increase in the NCS minimum subsidy from €0.50 to €1.40 as of 2nd January 2023.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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524. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the additional cost of increasing core funding by 50 cent, €1.00, €1.50 and €2.00 for the following early years pay grades; Educator, lead educator, graduate lead educator, duty manager, manager and graduate manager, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21051/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I am very conscious of the need for improvement in pay and working conditions for practitioners in early learning and childcare services. The level of pay they receive does not reflect the value of the work they do for children, for families and for the wider society and economy.

As the State does not employ staff in ELC and school-age childcare (SAC) services, I cannot set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.

There is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate pay rates for ELC and SAC services. With effect from 15 September 2022, two new Employment Regulation Orders for Early Years Services which were negotiated through the JLC, came into effect which provide for minimum hourly rates of pay and other conditions of employment for various roles both in early learning and care services and in school-age childcare services.

I have been made aware by my officials that the JLC is continuing to meet in relation to possible future pay negotiations.

Core Funding, which began in September 2022, is the new funding stream 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.

Core Funding – which has an allocation of €259 million in its first year - is underpinned by these EROs and is designed to support a range of objectives, including supporting the new minimum rates of pay for workers, as well as supporting career pathways and graduate employment.

Core Funding is distributed in a fair and reasonable manner that is related to services’ costs of delivery. Core Funding is allocated to services based on the number of child places being made available (whether filled or not), the age group of children for whom the places are available and the number of hours the places are available for, as well as the graduate qualifications of leaders in the service. These are the primary drivers of services' costs and this is therefore the most proportionate and transparent manner to allocate funding.

The majority of Core Funding is distributed based on a service's capacity - the opening hours, opening weeks and the age group of children for whom services are provided as well as the number of places available. This includes allocations for improvements in staff pay and conditions, for administrative staff/time, and a contribution to non-staff overhead costs. It is important to note that both contact and non-contact time, holiday pay, sick pay and other employer costs, are all factored in to the estimated staff costs allocation in Core Funding.

There is also an allocation to contribute to support graduates to be Lead Educators across ELC and to support graduates as Managers in ELC or combined ELC and SAC services. Heretofore funding has only been available in respect of graduate Room Leaders in the ECCE programme. The Graduate Lead Educator Premium in Core Funding is paid as a top up on the number of hours of provision that is led by a graduate. The Graduate Manager Premium is paid as a top up on the number of hours of operation of a service whose manager is a graduate.

However, Core Funding is not directly allocated in accordance with the cost of employing staff and so it is not possible to provide data for increasing core funding by 50 cent, €1.00, €1.50 and €2.00 for various roles in the sector.

For year 2 of Core Funding, I have secured an increase of €28 million, approximately €4 million of which will be used to remove the experience requirement on both Graduate Premiums under Core Funding, underpinned by new EROs. This move was widely welcomed in the sector. The remaining €24 million will be used for further developments and enhancements to the scheme, the precise allocation of which will be determined by evidence and analysis emerging from year one of the operation of the scheme and must be evidence based.

Budget 2023 allocates €1,025m to early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector. I am committed to working with Partner Services delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.