Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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693. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the percentage of childcare agencies' income that is made up of fees. [24435/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Budget 2023 allocated €1.025 billion to ELC and SAC, a 48% increase in allocation. This figure includes funding of Pobal, CCCs, VCOs, inspectorates, and sector supports, including the Learner Fund. Actual spending levels may differ from budget allocations. The following table presents beneficiary funding for 2023 allocations (i.e. excluding budgets for sector supports such as Pobal / Better Start, CCCs, VCOs, inspectorates, Learner Fund) provided for the ELC and SAC sector in 2023:

The Department does not gather data on parental fee income to early learning and childcare services other than occasional research studies, e.g. the independent review of costs. The independent review of costs undertaken by Crowe in 2018 on behalf of my Department found that approximately 40% of the total income to the sector comes from parental fees. This percentage varies significantly across services. Many services rely entirely on State funding while others services rely exclusively on parental fees.

Core Funding Partner Services will be required to provide financial returns in late 2023 detailing their income and costs, which should provide up to date insight in to the financial operations of services.