Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1167. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will provide an update on the Government's plans to further reduce the cost of childcare for families under the national childcare scheme; the timelines in place for the implementation of any additional cost-reduction measures; and the specific steps being taken to prevent the closure of early years and crèche services and to support the long-term sustainability of the sector. [29292/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to reducing the cost of early learning and childcare to €200 per month per child. This will build on significant progress in affordability that has already been made through a number of existing Schemes.

The Early Childhood Care and Education Programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96%. Over 70% of families on low-income report that they would not be able to send their child to pre-school without this Programme.

The National Childcare Scheme complements the Early Childhood Care and Education Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare.

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 €96.30 per week for 45 hours, which can be up to €5,007 in subsidies off parents’ annual bill per child.

New figures show that the number of children benefiting from the National Childcare Scheme between September 2024 and May 2025 has increased by 17% on the same previous period to 189,716. Since last September childminders have also been able to register with Tusla, and parents who use Tusla-registered childminders can now apply to avail of subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme.

An evaluation of the National Childcare Scheme is due to start this year. This evaluation will review how the Scheme has performed to date and identify potential enhancements that could be made. The findings from this evaluation will inform the work of my Department in reaching the cap of €200 per month per child within the lifetime of the Government.

The Programme for Government outlines the commitment to ‘undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system with State-led facilities adding capacity’. It goes on to state, ‘This plan will enhance parental choice through ongoing support for public, private and community provision, as well as childminders’.

My Officials are in the planning phase for this work, including determining the scope of the Action Plan, in the context of existing Plans (such as Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, the National Action Plan for Childminding and the First 5 Implementation Plan 2023-2025) and new Plans in development (such as the Action Plan for Administrative and Regulatory Simplification, the First 5 Implementation Plan 2026-2028).

Similarly, my Officials are also examining how recent consultations with stakeholders in the sector can inform the design of the broad consultation process that is committed to in the Programme for Government, having regard to ensuring the voices of children and families, educators and practitioners, providers and other stakeholders within the sector are taken into account. The timelines for undertaking the broad consultation and publishing the Action Plan will be determined during this planning phase.

Core Funding increased by 15% to €331 million for the current and third year of the scheme. Targeted supports for small and sessional services in year 2 of Core Funding were enhanced in year 3. Specifically, the flat rate allocation was set at €5,000, which increased from €4,075 in year 2 for sessional-only services, and the minimum base rate allocation was set at €14,000, which increased from €8,150 in year 2. Furthermore, Core Funding, in the programme year 2025/26 will exceed €390 million. Details of the allocation of this funding - which will exceed €390 million - was shared with providers last week. This record level of investment will support the introduction of a new maximum fee cap for early learning and childcare services participating in Core Funding. Under these new maximum fee caps, the highest possible fees will be no more than €295 per week for a full day place of between 40-50 hours per week. This will bring these fees closer to the average weekly fee of €197 for full day care. These fees for parents are then reduced by State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme and the free, universal two-year Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) preschool programme.

In addition to this a new maximum fee cap, the unprecedented funding available through Core Funding will ensure the existing fee freeze, which was introduced in 2022, will remain in place for participating services. This will continue to assist parents with children in the majority of services whose fees fall below the new fee caps.

There are special supports available from my Department where early learning and care and school-age childcare services are experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability. This support can take the form of general operational supports as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to the individual circumstances of a service.

These supports can be accessed by any Core Funding Partner Service by contacting their local City/County Childcare Committee.