Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1225. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the median full-time fees charged by childcare providers in each Local Authority area, in tabular form; the steps she plans to take to address significant fee variations across the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30369/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Each year Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile.

The most recently published fee data for the 2023/24 programme year indicates that the average (median) weekly fee per child before subsidies was €190.00 for full day early learning and care.

The fee data shows that there is a large degree of county-level variation in fees charged by services. Historically, fees have been higher in urban areas and along the East coast. The highest fees for full day provision in 2023/24 were charged by services in Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, where the average full-time fees were reported at €258.57. Whereas the lowest full day fees (€150.00) were in Leitrim.

Table 1. Service reported median fees by county:

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. An 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.

Government commits to ensuring that providers’ fees are open, transparent and equitable and readily available to parents, and to maintaining the fee cap. The foundations for this commitment are already in place. The introduction of the Parent Statement under Core Funding, which contained a single fee table, started the simplification of fee options to support understanding for parents. The data fields provide start and finish times, age ranges, hours per day, days per week, this supports ease of comparison for parents and data analysis for the Department.

The second step was moving the Parent Statement and Fee Table online. There is now a Universal Fee table which is applicable to all schemes and Parent Statements automatically generated using the information provided in the universal fee table.

The third step was the introduction of a common fee structure, controlled Fee Increases and a new maximum fee cap will now be introduced for all new and existing services receiving this State funding this September, which will further lower the maximum fees that can be charged. This will reduce costs for families who are facing the highest fees across the country in around 10 per cent of early learning and childcare providers.

State funding for early learning and childcare providers through Core Funding is being increased by €60 million for the forthcoming 2025/2026 period, bringing it to a record level of over €390 million. €45 million of the €60 million in increased funding was ringfenced for improved pay for the 37,000 staff in the early learning and childcare sector.

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.