Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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364. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of families on enhanced childcare subsidies that were negatively affected by the fee adjustment process in 2024 and are now paying higher fees than they were in August 2024. [33277/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The information required to give an accurate figure on the number of families on enhanced subsidies that were negatively affected by the fee adjustment process in 2024 is not currently available to my Department.

1145 applications to the Fee Increase Assessment process were received by the Department, of which 898 (78.48%) were granted permission to increase at least one fee up to an approved level. Only services with fees below the average in their county were eligible to apply, and approval to increase was subject to clear demonstration of need through Departmental evaluation of key financial and operational information relating to each business. Most of these services had seen their fees frozen at September 2021 levels, as per the effective fee freeze which has been in place since the launch of Core Funding, with many others having had their fees frozen for even longer periods. It’s vital that the Department support the viability of these services with the lowest fees to ensure fairness and balance in the market.

At the same time, the Department remains committed to the goal of actively promoting affordability for parents through the phased progression of the Core Funding fee management system, and I am confident that the introduction of maximum fee caps in year 4 of Core Funding will benefit families who are facing the highest fees across the country.

Earlier this month, I announced the introduction of maximum fee caps for all Partner Services in Core Funding from September 2025. The fee freeze will remain in place for all Partner Services with fees below these caps. This is an important step towards the reduction of fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government.

Maximum fee caps were introduced for new services last year, and this September they will be extended to existing services also. Under the new fee caps, the highest possible fees will be no more than €295 per week for a full-day place of 40-50 hours per week. Once the National Childcare Scheme subsidy is taken into account, the maximum fee for a parent in this situation will be less than €200 per week.

This latest measure builds on a range of supports already in place.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme provides two years of pre-school without charge and has participation rates of 96%. Over 70% of families on low income report they could not send their child to pre-school without it.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements ECCE, giving universal and targeted subsidies to reduce costs to parents. Recent improvements include the extension of the universal subsidy to children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, now worth €96.30 per week for 45 hours.

Almost 220,000 children benefited from a subsidy in 2024. Since last September, children in childminding settings can also benefit from National Childcare Scheme subsidies.

In addition, the fee management system introduced through Core Funding has made sure the investment in affordability is not absorbed by unnecessary fee increases. Core Funding has enjoyed high participation rates to date, with 92 per cent of services taking part.

Preparations for the first Estimates process for this Government are underway and I am committed to bringing forward proposals to make further progress in this area.

Work is also under way to develop an Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early learning and childcare system, informed by stakeholder consultation. This will set out future steps to reduce the cost of childcare further to €200 per month.