Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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539. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she plans to record data on payroll as a percentage of the overall income of each early years and SAC service participating in her Department’s funding streams; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27106/25]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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540. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she plans to record data on the overall percentage of deficit and up to surplus each early years and SAC service participating in her Department’s funding streams; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27107/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 539 and 540 together.

Partnership for the Public Good outlined 25 recommendations for a new funding model for Early Learning and Care and School Aged Childcare services. Recommendation 3E sets out that providers who sign up to Core Funding should be required to “provide transparent financial reports and participate as required in cost surveys and other necessary data-collection exercises”.

In line with this recommendation, a key condition of receiving Core Funding is financial reporting. Partner Services, those services signed up to Core Funding, are required to provide validated financial returns to the Department for each programme year that they participate in. As part of a transitional arrangement, the reporting requirements for the first two years of the scheme, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, were reduced to require just an income and expenditure report. These reports were submitted by registered accountants. The deadline for submission of the 2023/2024 returns was 18 April 2025, however the functionality remains in place for a small number of services to submit their overdue income and expenditure reports.

A chart of accounts has been prepared for the purpose of this financial reporting to ensure that reporting is consistent across all Partner Services. This greatly improves the quality of analysis that can be carried out on the data. The nominal codes are updated annually to reflect feedback from Partner Services and accountants as well as any changes to the income or expenditure of services. This chart of accounts allows for cost drivers, such as staff costs, to be identified and analysed. Insights from the financial returns for 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 will not provide context on profit or loss across the sector as this information cannot be derived from a cash basis income and expenditure report.

Financial reporting will continue to be a key feature of Core Funding, as recommended by the Expert Group. From the third year of the scheme (2024/2025) and thereafter, Partner Services will be required to submit a full trial balance via a registered accountant. The 2024/2025 returns are due to be submitted by the end of February 2026.

These data can only be published in aggregate format, and it is in this format that levels of surplus and/or deficit would be examined in future years when trial balances are submitted to further inform policy development.

Officials are currently preparing for an analysis of the data from the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 submissions with a view to publishing a report outlining aggregate insights by the end of quarter 1 2026.