Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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175. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 1897 of 29 April 2025, when the review to the provision of core funding scheme will take place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24743/25]

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 €259m of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8m was entirely new funding.

Since the Scheme was introduced, its effectiveness has been subject to ongoing review and the scheme itself has evolved year on year.

Core funding increased by 11% to reach €287m for the second year, and by a further 15% to €331m for the current and third year of the scheme. The allocation of this additional funding in year 2 and 3 of was informed by the data from previous years, feedback from stakeholders as well as an independent financial review of sessional services by Frontier Economics.

Targeted supports for small and sessional services introduced in year 2, were enhanced in year 3.

Moreover, changes to fee management were introduced in year 3, enabling low fee services to apply for a fee increase.

The full year allocation for year 4 of Core Funding will be €350m. A further €45m has been ringfenced to support employers to meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay in the sector.

Combined, and contingent on the third successive Employment Regulations Orders, the Core Funding allocation will exceed €390m. The details of this allocation, which will be published shortly, has being informed by data from previous years as well as stakeholder feedback.

An evaluation of the first year of Core Funding and the development of an evaluation framework for Core Funding is currently underway. This project will examine the early implementation of Core Funding and make recommendations for future evaluations of the grant. Findings from the project are expected in Quarter 4 2025.

This project is being undertaken by Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service or IGEES policy analysts working in the Research and Evaluation Unit of my Department.

IGEES is an integrated cross-government service established in 2012 with the objective of enhancing the role of economics and value for money analysis in public policy making. It is part of the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.