Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Investment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding for the first time reaching more than €1 billion in 2023 – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector.

Budget 2024 allocated an additional €37.4m to Core Funding. This increase on the 2023 allocation will support continued implementation of the scheme for the second programme year (September 2023 to August 2024) and into the third programme year from September 2024.

With additional funding of €14.65m being made available from September 2024, this translates into a full year allocation of €331m for year 3 of Core Funding, an increase of €44m, or 15%, on the current allocation of €287m.

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 per week and the number of weeks per year, 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.

Structuring Core Funding primarily based on capacity means that services have an allocation each year that does not fluctuate in line with children’s attendance and providers have a stable income source based on the service they deliver.

Through ECCE capitation and Core Funding combined, services receive minimum of €79.20 per child per week in capitation under the ECCE programme and maximum of €95.85 with additional funding for graduate lead educators and graduate managers in the case of sessional services. This includes a flat rate allocation of €4,075 for all sessional-only services, which will benefit approximately 1,700 services delivering ECCE, and a minimum base rate allocation of €8,150, which will benefit small, part time and school-age services.

In a continued commitment to supporting these services, these targeted measures will continue to apply in the 2024/2025 programme year. Moreover the additional €44m for Year 3 of the Scheme includes:

• €9.27m which will support a 3% increase in capacity in the sector in year three of the scheme, driven both by new services joining the sector and existing services offering more places and/or longer hours to families;
• The allocation for administration will increase by €3.21m; and
• The allocation for non-staff overheads will increase by €10.07m to ensure the Scheme continues to keep pace with cost pressures facing services.

The remaining €21.49m will be used for other developments, to be informed by the emerging data from Year 2 of the scheme as well as the Financial Returns.

Some €69 million has been allocated over the period 2023-2025 to the early learning and childcare sector under the revised National Development Plan (NDP). This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare across three pillars:1. Building Blocks - Improvement Grant

2. Building Blocks - Capacity Grant; and

3. Building Blocks - Innovation Grant.Under the Building Blocks - Improvement Grant, €9 million was allocated earlier this year in grants ranging from €35,000 to €75,000 for energy upgrades and retrofit projects, which supported services in need of upgrading, such as kitchen refurbishments, roof repairs and the replacement of flooring. This scheme is now closed and my Department does not have further capital funding available for the early learning and childcare sector in 2023.

Work is currently underway on the design and delivery of Pillars 2 and 3, which have a combined allocation of €20 million in 2024 and €40 million in 2025.

The Building Blocks – Capacity Grant will fund an expansion of existing services in areas of under-supply. Funding will also be provided to support the development of new services, where most needed. The Building Blocks – Innovation Grant will pilot a range of innovative initiatives such as outdoor early learning and childcare services.

I hope to be in a position to provide more information on the delivery of this Building Blocks – Capacity Grant in the coming weeks.