Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

543. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the projected 2024/2025 costs of all the funding streams that are available to early years and SAC services, ECCE, NCS, core funding, AIM, LINC, graduate uplift and early start in a list form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27110/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Government is committed to ensure high quality early learning and childcare is accessible and affordable as demonstrated by unprecedented increases in State investment in recent years.

The Budget allocation in the childcare sector in Ireland for 2024 and 2025 is set out below:

The Core Funding Budget allocation is inclusive of the graduate premiums.

The Inclusion Coordinator (INCO) funding stream is contained within the AIM budget allocation.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

544. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the percentage of graduate uplift funding that goes to graduate lead educators and graduate managers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27111/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

When introduced in September 2022, Core Funding subsumed the funding and purpose of ECCE Higher Capitation and replaced this support for graduate leaders with Graduate Premiums. There are two such Graduate Premiums under Core Funding.

The Graduate Lead Educator Premium supports graduate-led provision in Early Learning and Care sessions. The allocation for a Partner Service is calculated as the number of weekly room hours (where an eligible ELC session operates with a eligible Graduate Lead Educator in it), multiplied by the room operating weeks per year (based on Room Offering), multiplied by the Graduate Lead Educator premium rate of €4.44, with a maximum of one Graduate Lead Educator premium per room at a time.

The Graduate Manager Premium supports graduate leadership of an Early Learning and Care service as a whole. The allocation for a Partner Service is calculated as the number of service operating hours per week that the Graduate Manager is working, multiplied by the weeks per year the service operates where the Graduate Manager is working, multiplied by the Graduate Manager Premium rate of €4.44.

As the State is not the employer of staff in the sector, neither I nor my Department can set their pay or determine working conditions.

These allocations are underpinned by the graduate staff in a given service and are paid directly to the Partner Service as part of their overall Core Funding grant allocation. It is at the discretion of the Partner Service as to how their Core Funding grant is utilised, provided the purpose conforms to the approved areas of expenditure as set out in the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement.

The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders (ERO). The existing ERO rates for Graduate Lead Educator and Graduate Manager are €16.28 and €18.11 respectively. These are minimum rates of pay per hour and it is open to each employer to pay more than this minimum.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding which in the programme year 2025/26 will exceed €390 million.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context

545. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when a child with AIMS requirements presents to pre-school, whether extra places at a school (details supplied) will be made available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27157/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Access and Inclusion Model, or AIM, is a programme of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the Early Childhood Care and Education, or ECCE, programme. Its goal is to empower early learning and care providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE Programme and reap the benefits of quality pre-school education in any mainstream early learning and care service.

Early learning and care providers are private entities and set their own admissions policies and the Department has no role in that regard.

However, parents and providers can contact their local City or County Childcare Committee for further information and support. Funded by my Department, the City and County Childcare Committees offer guidance on accessing childcare, help with securing placements (where available), and advice on supports to ensure a child’s meaningful participation in early learning and care. More information is available at www.myccc.ie/.