Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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816. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of service providers that have pulled out of the core funding scheme since its introduction in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16917/25]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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837. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare providers who exited core funding in 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date, in 2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17402/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 816 and 837 together.

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 is now worth €331 million in its third year of operation.

In view of the 15% increase in Core Funding in year 3 and the associated supports, including the increase in the flat rate allocation for sessional services to €5,000, the increase in the minimum Core Funding allocation to €14,000 and the introduction of the Fee Increase Assessment Process, I am confident that, participation rates will continue to remain on par with previous years.

With 95% participation of eligible services in year 1, 94% or over 4,300 providers signed up for Core Funding Year 2, and to date, over 92% or over 4400 eligible services are currently signed up in year 3, with applications still open.

Participation in Core Funding is optional but it remains open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding.

According to the latest data provided by Pobal, in their role as scheme administrator on 7 April 2025, a total of 33 services/providers withdrew in total from Core Funding since its introduction in September 2022. Of the aforementioned 33 services, one has subsequently since re-entered into Core Funding.

Please see table below, the number of childcare providers who exited Core Funding during their programme years in 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date, in 2025:

While my Department cannot mandate providers to participate in schemes, every effort has been made to carefully design Core Funding to meet the policy objectives including to achieve high levels of participation by providers.

It is a matter for providers to decide whether they wish to withdraw from the Core Funding scheme, the significant financial supports it provides to providers and the certainty it provides to parents through the associated fee freeze. However, I am confident that given the level of investment and associated supports, services should not need to take this step.

While a service provider intends to withdraw from Core Funding, they remain eligible in this programme year to provide the National Childcare Scheme, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Saver programme.

Supports are available from my Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, accessed through local City/County Childcare Committees.

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.