Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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663. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth whether the new rules around maximum fee caps will apply to childcare providers who are re-entering core funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31855/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Core Funding programme year 2025/2026 introduced a new maximum fee cap for early learning and childcare services participating in Core Funding alongside record State funding of €390 million this year for the Scheme.

This new maximum fee cap introduced is for all new and existing services participating in Core Funding.

This applies to all services and scales across 6 bands, and therefore, the new rules around maximum fee caps will apply to providers who are re-entering Core Funding.

All Partner Services must adhere to the Agreement for the provision of Core Funding in programme year 4 when they sign up to Core Funding. This sets out the conditions of the scheme, including agreeing not to charge fees above what was charged to parents in September 2021.

In practice this means services who choose to re-join the scheme in programme year 4 will be required to revert to their September 2021 fees, and if these fees are higher than the new maximum fee caps they will need to lower them to re-join the scheme

Additionally, services can join Core Funding at any point even if they have previously chosen to leave the scheme.