Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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756. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if her Department has undertaken a review of the ECCE funding provided to the sector with a view to increasing the rates; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7485/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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An Expert Group was established by my Department in 2019 and was in place for over 2 years until 2021. The report from the Expert Group ‘Partnership for the Public Good’ was published in December 2021. This report was informed by research conducted by Frontier Economics and used research previously conducted by Crowe regarding the costs related to providing Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare.

This report made 25 recommendations to Government. All 25 of these recommendations were accepted by Government, and in 2022 Together for Better was launched.

Together for Better brings together the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model, the National Childcare Scheme, Equal Start, and the Core Funding scheme.

The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, and this investment increased year on year. The scheme is worth to €331 million in the current programme year.

Increased funding is available to services delivering the Early Childhood Care and Education programme through Core Funding.

Specifically, Early Childhood Care and Education programme sessional services who operate for 15 hours per week over 38 weeks per year can avail of weekly funding of at least €79.80 per child in the Early Childhood Care and Education programme (€69 Early Childhood Care and Education programme capitation plus €10.80 per week in Core Funding base rate). Core Funding is payable whether or not the place is filled.

Additionally, if a lead educator of an Early Childhood Care and Education programme session is a graduate with a relevant qualification, an additional amount of €66.60 will be paid to the service per week. If there is a separate manager who is a graduate with a relevant qualification, a further €66.60 if available to the service per week.

A number of targeted supports for small and sessional services in Year 2 of Core Funding were introduced in order to improve sustainability of small-medium services, and these supports were enhanced in September 2024 for Year 3. These measures currently include a flat rate top up of €5,000 (increased from €4,075 in Year 2) for sessional-only services, and a minimum base rate allocation of €14,000 (increased from €8,150 in Year 2).