Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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465. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the detailed breakdown of the number of early learning and childcare providers that have received financial support under the Sustainability Funding strand of the Core Funding programme from 2023 to date; the individual amounts allocated to each provider, broken down by local authority area, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31349/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Core Funding is a grant to providers designed to support quality, sustainability, and enhanced public management, with associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency, incorporating funding for administration and to support the employment of graduate staff.

The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding. This funding increased by 11% in year 2 (to €287 million). The scheme increased by a further 15% in year 3 (to €331 million). From September 2025, when year 4 of Core Funding begins, over €390 million will be available through Core Funding.

The increased Core Funding available from September facilitates:

• Support for providers in meeting the costs of increases in minimum pay rates as a result of newly negotiated Employment Regulation Orders by the independent Joint Labour Committee;
• Increased funding for early learning and care capacity offered to ensure Partner Services can keep pace with rising costs without needing to increase fees charged to parents;
• An increase to the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive, increasing to €14,400 per year from the current level of €14,000;
• A reduction in the maximum allocation for a services capacity to €450,000 to best spread a limited budget across the entire sector; and
• Funding to support capacity growth of 3.5% across the sector.

Additionally, my Department oversees a system of case management through which local CCC assist services with issues and difficulties that arise. More complex or urgent cases are escalated to Pobal, the scheme administrator, who can support with additional expertise, and who also monitor and track these cases and report on them to the Department on a monthly basis (Services of Concern, (SOC) meetings).

Once a service engages with their local CCC they will be able to avail of supports through the case management process.

Through this process, local CCC and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to services experiencing difficulties. This support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, general operational supports financial support for partner services, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.

In some instances, financial supports may be deemed appropriate in tandem with the case management process. These supports can be accessed by any Core Funding Partner Service by contacting their local CCC.

Please see below breakdown per calendar year of number of services for whom Sustainability Funding was approved since 2023, noting funding has closed for 2023 and 2024; the number of these services that received funding under Strand 11, Strand 12 or Strand 4 (or both Strand 11 and Strand 4).

I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support to contact their CCC to access case management supports. Contact details for the CCCs can be found at City and County Childcare Committees (www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/campaigns/city-and-county-childcare-committees/).