Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Core Funding, introduced in September 2022, is designed to meet the combined objectives of:

• Improved affordability for parents by ensuring that fees do not increase;
• Improved quality for children through better pay and conditions for the workforce by supporting agreement on an Employment Regulation Order through the Joint Labour Committee and supporting the employment of graduate staff; and
• Improved sustainability and stability for services.

Core Funding is paid directly to providers and operates alongside the early learning and childcare subsidies - National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. It constitutes additional income for providers on top of funding for these schemes, as well as income from parental fees.

Core Funding in year 1 (September 2022-August 2023) resulted in a €259 million increase in public investment in the sector. For year 2 of the scheme (September 2023-August 2024), the Core Funding budget will increase by 11% to reach €287 million.

These levels of Core Funding in the sector are such, that even substantial increases in the total cost base related to both pay and non-pay costs, can be absorbed by services participating in Core Funding. This therefore, maintains the conditions necessary for the ongoing implementation of fee management in a sustainable manner.

In year one and year two of Core Funding, fee management is effectively a fee freeze, where providers cannot increase the fees charged from September 2021.

Participation in Core Funding is optional but it is open to all providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding, including the fee freeze.

While it is my ambition to have as high take-up as possible, a small proportion of early learning and childcare services – 5% overall - chose not to join Core Funding in Year 1. Specifically in Year 1, 98% of not-for-profit services signed up and 93% of private for profit services signed up. Applications for Year 2 of Core Funding remain open.

I do not want any services to be faced with financial sustainability issues and I am fully committed to working with any such service to support them in delivering early learning and childcare for the public good. There are supports, financial and otherwise, available to services who need them.

In addition to Core Funding, Sustainability funding is available to services participating in Core Funding that are experiencing financial difficulty. Services experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support are encouraged to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports. Services can be assisted on an individual basis through this route.

Services are encouraged to avail of these supports as an alternative to not participating in Core Funding and removing the benefit of the fee freeze to parents.

Further increases to Core Funding for year 3 (September 2024-August 2025) will be considered in the context of the upcoming estimates process, with data from validated financial returns, expected later this year, to underpin future developments in fee management.