Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1216. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will provide an update on the work carried out to date to develop an action plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early education and care system with State-led facilities adding capacity as committed in the Programme for Government; when she expects to publish this action plan; if she will consult with key stakeholders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30360/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1217. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will outline the roadmap to reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child; if she will provide an estimated timeframe to meet this key Programme for Government commitment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30361/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1216 and 1217 together.

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 (ECCE) 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 (NCS) complements the ECCE Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare.

The NCS 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 €96.20 per week for 45 hours.

Record numbers of children and their families are now benefiting from the NCS. Almost 220,000 unique children benefited from an NCS subsidy in 2024.

Children in childminding settings that have come forward for registration, following changes to the childminder Tulsa registration requirements last September, can also benefit from NCS subsidies.

The fee management system introduced through the Core Funding Scheme has ensured that the investment in affordability is not absorbed by unnecessary fee increases and/or uncapped fees. A cap on fees was introduced for services joining Core Funding for the first time in the third year. On 5th June this year, I announced the details of a new maximum fee cap that will apply to all services in Core Funding from September 2025, and which will reduce costs for families who are facing the highest fees across the country.

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.

A detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early learning and childcare system will be developed, informed by stakeholder consultation. This will include the steps to deliver the €200 per month cap and outline the timeline for achieving this.

Further progress on affordability will not be made in isolation and will be integrated with our efforts to improve access, availability and the quality of early learning and childcare provision.