Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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1362. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the plans in place to stop the significant number of withdrawals from the core funding scheme, including several in Dublin Mid-West, which is adding unaffordable cost increases to parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11285/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.

Core Funding increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2 and by a further 15% in year 3 (to €331 million). This facilitated the following changes from 2 September 2024, which built on the targeted measures that were introduced in the second year of the scheme to support smaller and sessional only services:

• The base rates for all age groups increased with larger increases in funding for places offered to children under the age of three.
• The flat rate for services registered on the Tusla Early Years Register as sessional-only (a preschool service offering a programme for a total of not more than 3.5 hours per session) increased from €4,075 to €5,000. This strengthens supports to sessional-only services, who typically operate for shorter hours per week and fewer weeks per year.
• The minimum base rate allocation increased from €8,150 to €14,000. This is the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service (not childminders) has received through their base rate and ensures a minimum guaranteed income for services. This increase supports smaller services and services operating in rural areas, who may be prone to fluctuations in demand.
• The maximum base rate allocation has decreased from €600,000 to €500,000. Services will not receive funding through the base rate beyond this maximum value. Any service receiving more than this maximum value will see their base rate funding reduce to this level.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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1363. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if the core funding scheme is being reviewed in light of the significant number of operators withdrawing due to inability to operate solvently, which is adding additional costs to parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11286/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.

Core Funding increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2 and by a further 15% in year 3 (to €331 million) to facilitate a range of enhancements to the scheme.

In line with Budget 2025, Core Funding will be worth approximately €390 million in year 4 of the scheme, contingent on updated Employment Regulation Orders.

Core Funding Partner Services are required to submit financial returns to my Department. Financial returns from year 2, currently being submitted from providers, will inform the ongoing development of Core Funding for year 4 of the Scheme and will inform preparations for Budget 2026.

Core Funding is a successful scheme with a high uptake rate among providers. Currently 92% or more than 4,400, providers having signed up for Core Funding in year 3.

The Agreement for the provision of Core Funding in year 3 (2024/2025) states that services must give 3 months’ notice of their intention to withdraw to the scheme administrator, and 3 months’ written notice to parents/guardians.

As per the latest data available to my Department, two services have withdrawn from the scheme since the start of this current programme year and remain operational.

A further five services around the country have given their notice to withdraw from the scheme in the current programme year.

Where a provider withdraws from Core Funding, they remain eligible in this programme year to provide the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP) Saver programme.

I do not want any service to be faced with financial sustainability issues and officials in my Department are committed to working with any such service to support them in delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.

As such, in addition to the increased levels of Core Funding since the scheme was introduced, there are wider financial supports available from my Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, which can be accessed while remaining within Core Funding.

I encourage services to avail of these supports as an alternative to withdrawing from Core Funding and removing the benefits of this Scheme to parents.

There are commitments in the new Programme for Government to review and increase Core Funding, ensure that providers’ fees are open, transparent and equitable and readily available to parents and to maintaining the fee cap. These form part of a wider suite of ambitious commitments that seek to make further progress on making high quality early learning and childcare more affordable and accessible by this Government.