Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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836. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of childcare providers signed up to core funding in 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17401/25]

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 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.

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 recent data provided by Pobal, in their role as scheme administrator, a total of 4,427 services contracted (as of 31 March), to Core Funding, to date, with applications still open.

Please see table below, which gives the total number of unique service reference numbers (SRN), who activated a Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement for each programme year of Core Funding.

This is broken down by the calendar year in which the funding agreement was activated. All of these services will have received Core Funding payments in the relevant programme year.

Services that underwent a change of circumstance (COC), (i.e. a change of address, legal structure or owner) will have received a new service reference number after the change. Provided they re-joined Core Funding under the new reference number, these services are only included once in the count.

Contract Start & End Dates:

• Core Funding Year 1 (01-09-2022 to 31-08-2023)
• Core Funding Year 2 (04-09-2023 to 01-09-2024)
• Core Funding Year 3 (02-09-2024 to 31-08-2025)

  Programme Year	Contracted 2022	Contracted 2023	Contracted 2024	Contracted 2025	Total Programme Year
  Core Funding 2022-2023	4160	114			4274
  Core Funding 2023-2024		4332	77		4409
  Core Funding 2024-2025			4377	58	4435

This year the scheme has continued to support increases to capacity and accessibility for parents whilst also ensuring improved quality and sustainability of Partner Services.

Further increases in year four of the scheme, announced in Budget 2025, will see the total allocation increase to over €390 million. Further details on the fourth programme year will be announced to services in advance of the application opening.