Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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2487. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the steps her Department is taking to address the cost of childcare in areas like Dublin Rathdown, where the cost is above the national average and previous interventions have been unable to bring it down; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43607/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Investment in early learning and childcare is now at unprecedented levels with public funding exceeding €1.37 billion in 2025, clearly demonstrating the Government’s commitment to this area.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96%. Over 70% of families on low income report that they would not be able to send their child to pre-school without this Programme.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements the ECCE Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare. The Scheme is progressive in nature ensuring the highest levels of subsidies go to families that need them most.

The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth a minimum of €96.30 per week for 45 hours.

Record numbers of children and their families are now benefiting from the NCS. Almost 220,000 unique children benefited from an NCS subsidy in 2024.

Children in childminding settings that have come forward for registration, following changes to the childminder Tusla registration requirements last September, can also benefit from NCS subsidies.

An evaluation of the NCS is due to start this year. This evaluation will review how the Scheme has performed to date and identify potential enhancements that could be made to further improve affordability for families.

Core Funding has seen consistent increased State investment to the sector year on year, and is set in year 4 to be worth over €390 million contingent on the establishment of new minimum rates of pay in the sector through updated Employment Regulation Orders. This is an increase of over 50% since the scheme began in September 2022 with an allocation of €259 million.

I am aware that there are a minority of services charging well above the national average. My Department continue to work on reducing childcare fees nationwide. Last 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 childcare 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 these new fee caps, the fee for a full day place – of between 40-50 hours per week, the most common full day care operating hours – will be no more than €295 per week (before State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme and the ECCE programme are deducted), the fee cap for 50+ hours of care is €354. All of the fee caps will reduce the highest fees at each fee band in the country. The majority of services are already charging far less than the new maximum fees. This is an important step towards the reduction of childcare fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government. This latest measure builds on a range of supports already in place.

Each year Pobal compiles data from Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers as part of the Early Years Sector Profile.

The fee data shows that there is a large degree of county-level variation in fees charged by services. Historically, fees have been higher in urban areas and along the east coast. The fees for full day provision in 2023/24 charged by services in Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown were reported at €258.57. This marks a marginal decrease in Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown from €263.50 in 2022/23.

The average out-of-term SAC fees were reported at €200.00 for Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, while the national average was €165.00. The weekly average out-of-term SAC fee has remained the same at €200.00 in 2023/2024 compared to 2022/23.

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 early learning and childcare further to €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government.