Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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500. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of the enhancing quality fund to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40525/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department launched the What Works Enhancing Quality Fund on July 2, 2025. The Fund aims to support not-for-profit organisations to promote continuous improvement and innovation using a process of problem-solving in prevention and early intervention services for children and young people. The Fund is significant part of the What Works initiative, which is funded through the Dormant Accounts Fund.

The closing date for the receipt of applications to the Enhancing Quality Fund is August 22, 2025, after which an assessment process will take place. No funding will be assigned until that process is complete. More information on submitting an application can be found at .

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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501. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of the Parent Peer Support Fund 2024/2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40526/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In December 2024, my Department announced €100,000 in funding under the Parent Peer Support Fund, to 42 successful projects. 37 projects received funding of €2,000 and a further 5 projects received funding of €5,000, to support the expansion of established parent peer support initiatives, which have been proven to have a positive impact for parents and carers.

This fund is part of Supporting Parents, A National Model of Parenting Support Services (2022-27), which seeks to ensure that all parents are confident and capable in their parenting role, helping to achieve the best outcomes for children and families.

Details of funding broken down by county level are included below:

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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502. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of the childminding development grant to date in 2025, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40527/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In 2025, my department has paid €413,338 to childminders as part of the Childminding Development Grant.

The breakdown of payments per county can be found in the table below.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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503. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of the national childcare scheme and ECCE programme to date, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40528/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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504. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of core funding to date, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40529/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Since the introduction of Core Funding in 2022, my Department has paid €847,590,438.70 to Core Funding Partner Services.

The breakdown of payments per county can be found in the table below and includes the values paid right up to the end of programme year 3 which will be 31 August 2025.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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505. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding given to each county as part of the children's disability service grant fund to date, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40530/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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In October 2023, the HSE, in conjunction with DCDE, launched an open call for applications for the Children’s Disability Service Grant Fund. The Grant Fund is an initiative detailed under action 2.7 of the Roadmap for Service Improvement 2023-2026, Disability Services for Children and Young People.

This measure is intended to provide families with supports and services while their child awaits the interventions to be provided by the CDNT.

Applications for funding were open to organisations with an existing service arrangement or grant agreement with the HSE, Community groups, Voluntary groups and private service providers. Projects to be funded included recognised sensory programmes, evidence-based therapies such as equine therapy, respite - including clubs, evening and weekend sessions, Saturday clubs, sports sessions, activities designed to meet the needs of disabled children and additional therapy sessions - for example, for managing distress giving rise to challenging behaviours

There was a huge response from voluntary and community groups and private agencies to the call for submissions, with over 500 applications, ranging from proposals for several thousand euro to larger projects seeking up to three million euro over three years. The total funding sought amounted to almost €45 million. The very high number of applications meant that there was strong competition for finite funds.

A Children’s Disability Services Grant Scheme Evaluation Panel was formed to assess all applications based on the following criteria: Quality and coherence of proposal; Contribution to wellbeing of children and families; Potential lasting impact; Capacity and sustainability of providers to deliver person-centred services and comply with standards; Value for money.

The Evaluation Panel also agreed that: the purpose of the fund was to set up a framework of service providers from which Children’s Disability Network Managers (CDNM) would draw down supports for children waitlisted for their CDNT whilst they wait to receive CDNT services; the initiative was primarily for children waitlisted for the CDNT rather than children actively attending the CDNT; and a CDNM could not refer a child and family to a service that would require them to pay a fee.

Due to the sheer volume of applications and the additional administrative work involved in co-ordinating and collating the proposals, the HSE had to revise the anticipated time-frame for the assessment process and the award of funding to successful proposals. On 5th June 2024, the HSE confirmed that a total of 52 projects had been chosen to receive funding under the Grant Fund, with a number of the larger projects to be funded over a three-year cycle. The total estimated cost of funding all 52 projects is €7.97m.

Tt was confirmed on 25th March 2025 that my Department had secured sanction for the Grant Fund, with funding allocated from the €3.2 billion disability services budget.

The HSE is now engaging with short-listed applicants around the drawdown of funding and the financial and governance requirements in relation to the delivery of projects.