Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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957. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will provide details on the percentage of early years providers accessing the Government’s core funding scheme that pay an hourly educator rate of €15 or above; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23476/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and cannot set wage rates or working conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for the sector.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding, which has seen its allocation increase from €259 million in year 1 to €350 million for the coming programme year 2025/2026.

An additional €45 million has been ringfenced in the coming programme year to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay conditional on updated Employment Regulation Orders.

I acknowledge the important role the Joint Labour Committee and its members are playing in improving wages and working conditions in the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector.

On the basis of 2025 data supplied by Partner Services taking part in the Core Funding scheme, the estimated percentage of services paying an early years educator on or above €15 per hour is approximately 50%.

In relation to the estimate above, the following should be noted:

• The estimate is based on staff details, including role title, recorded in service providers’ submissions for Core Funding.
• Estimates are based on the most recent data available to the Department which was provided by service providers in February 2025.
• Calculations are based on wage-data available at a point in time. Some services may have increased wages more recently, which would reduce the cost to services of moving from current wage-rates to the propose wage rates in the question.
• The figure provided does not take into account the income currently received by those working in the sector who are self-employed and who derive their income from profits rather than wages.