Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1227. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her plans to ensure that childcare provider’s fees are open, transparent and equitable and readily available to parents as committed to in the Programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30371/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to ensure that providers’ fees are open, transparent and equitable and readily available to parents.

Fee management was introduced under Core Funding. Since the launch of that scheme in September 2022, Partner Services have agreed to an effective fee freeze whereby they will not increase fees above those charged on 30 September 2021.

In the context of the substantial level of investment in the sector through Core Funding, immediate enforcement of a freeze on fees at this early stage was critical to support value for money, good corporate governance across the scheme and to meet the Department’s overarching objective of increasing affordability to parents.

Alongside the introduction of this fee freeze, my Department has taken steps to prepare the sector for the next phase of fee management.

The first step was the introduction of the Parent Statement which contained a single fee table, intended to start the process of 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. Validations have been included for the 2024/2025 programme year to reduce the potential for user errors, and in preparation for future years and to support the implementation of a common fee structure.

The third step was the introduction of a common fee structure, controlled Fee Increases and maximum Fee Caps from September 2024.

In Partnership for the Public Good, the Expert Group supported movement towards a common fee structure for all Partner Services and the fee table contained within the Parent Statement is the key infrastructure on which this can be built. Targeted fee caps and controlled fee increases, working in association with a fee freeze, represent a further development of the fee management system under Core Funding and mark the next step toward achieving the medium and long-term goals outlined in the Expert Group’s report.

While this fee freeze has remained in place for the majority of services for year 3 of Core Funding, the Department introduced:

• a new Fee Increase Assessment and Approval Process whereby a Partner Service meeting certain criteria could apply to increase their fees up to an approved level, and
• a cap on fees for services joining Core Funding for the first time this year

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.

Parents/guardians and their children can only avail of the benefits and protections that Core Funding creates, such as fee management, if their service has chosen to participate in the scheme as a Partner Service and Core Funding is designed to ensure maximum participation by providers.

However, historical fees lists for programme years 22/23 and current year are available on the Childcare Search section of the NCS Website for every early learning and childcare service. The fees list tables include which schemes the service has contracted to and whether the service is a Partner service under Core Funding or not. They also include details of session costs, full or part time costs where applicable and any fee extras such as after-school clubs, deposits and any relevant discounts for multiple children dependent on the service offerings. The fees lists are downloadable to pdf format.

Parents can also contact the Parent Support Centre by phone by completing a contact form on the website to ask about year-on-year comparison of fees lists for their individual service. Local City or County Childcare Committee (CCC), can also provide information and support regarding fees – the CCCs have access to all fees lists for their region. Contact details for local County/City Childcare Committees can be found at www.gov.ie/en/publication/52b71-support-for-parents-city-and-county-childcare-committees/.