Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1782. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in the context of plans to lower the cost of childcare to €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government, if she will outline what supports are available in the short term to childcare service users who face fee hikes due to their crèche having withdrawn from the core funding scheme. [18517/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As mentioned by the Deputy, the Programme for Government commits to reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child. A number of existing Schemes will need to play a role to achieve these aims.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96% each year.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements the ECCE Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in Early Learning & Childcare (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC).

The National Childcare Scheme has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth a minimum of €96.20 per week for 45 hours.

On the specific question on Core Funding, Core Funding is a grant for early learning and childcare providers towards their operating costs and is funding directly to providers (supply-side funding) and is designed to improve affordability, quality, inclusion and sustainability. It has been formulated to be mutually beneficial to both parents and providers.

Budget 2025 makes additional funding available for year 4 of Core Funding. These increases will bring the full year allocation for year 4 of Core Funding (September 2025-August 2026) to €350.64 million.

For families who have faced fee increases due to their service leaving Core Funding, if their service offered the National Childcare Scheme or the ECCE Programme they still remain eligible in this programme year to receive these supports.

In addition to this funding, there are wider financial supports available from the Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, which can be accessed while remaining within Core Funding.

All services are encouraged to avail of these supports as an alternative to withdrawing from Core Funding and removing the benefit of Core Funding to children and their families.

All childcare service users are encouraged to engage with their local City or County Childcare Committee who can support and advise them on options in their area. Local CCCs can be found on:.