Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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1902. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early learning and childcare services that exited or declined core funding by county and service type in 2025 to date; the number of enrolled children affected; and the reasons recorded by her Department or local city/county childcare committees (details supplied). [45122/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, I have defined a service that left Core Funding as any service that had a gap between contracts for Core Funding of 4 or more weeks. There are a number of reasons that a service might fall into this definition, for example a service could have withdrawn from the scheme, been removed from the scheme for breach or rules, or experienced a delay in re-contracting following a change of circumstance application or between programme years. In relation to withdrawals specifically, services may choose to leave the scheme mid-year for a multitude of reasons including being denied a fee increase, temporary closures, financial difficulties and administrative requirements. Many services have left and later re-joined the scheme. There may be a small number of services who left the scheme and subsequently closed at a later date and are not captured in the figures below.

As of 5 August 2025, there were 4,807 services listed as being open on the Early Years Platform, of which 141 (3%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years and continue to operate outside of this scheme. A further 336 services (7%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years but later rejoined and are currently signed up to the third year of the scheme. The overwhelming majority of services, 4,056 or 84%, have continued to participate in Core Funding from the date on which they first signed up for the scheme.

The revised approach to identifying and reporting on services that have left Core Funding results in breakdowns only being available for a full programme year. Therefore, the figures below reflect services that left Core Funding during the 2024/2025 programme year. The fourth year of Core Funding began on 1 September 2025 and uptake continues to remain on par with the same point in previous years. Every year there are a number of services who sign up to Core Funding in the weeks following the commencement of the programme year. For this reason, it is not yet possible to make an accurate assessment regarding whether further services have made the decision to no longer participate in Core Funding.

As of 5 August 2025, 19 Partner Services had left the 2024/2025 programme year of Core Funding (Year 3), of which 10 had rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on this date. The other 9 open services who left in the third year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025. I am also aware that between 5 and 31 August 2025, two additional services reached the end of their notice period and withdrew from Core Funding – one in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and one in Kildare. A breakdown by county division is below in tabular format.

As Core Funding is a supply-side grant to early learning and childcare providers towards their operating costs, my Department does not hold individualised fee data for parents as these are local agreements between parents and providers. However, The National Childcare Scheme (NCS), is a subsidy provided to help parents to meet the cost of childcare and allow children to access Early Learning Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC), to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in ELC and SAC.

While my Department cannot mandate providers to participate in schemes, every effort has been made to carefully design Core Funding to meet the policy objectives including to achieve high levels of participation by providers.

It is a matter for providers to decide whether they wish to withdraw from the Core Funding scheme, the significant financial supports it provides to providers and the certainty it provides to parents through the associated fee freeze. However, I am confident that given the level of investment and associated supports, services should not need to take this step.

Participation in Core Funding is optional, but it remains open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding. It is a matter for providers to decide whether they wish to sign up to Core Funding, the significant financial supports it offers to providers and the certainty it gives to parents through the associated fee management measures.

Additionally, my Department funds 30 City/County Childcare Committees, which provide support and assist families and early learning and childcare providers. The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country can assist in identifying vacant places in services for children and families who need them and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services, particularly where there is unmet need.

Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee for assistance. For information, my Department has a list of all Core Funding Partner Services, which is updated regularly on the website, under How to Find a Partner Service.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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1903. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of applications under the 2024/2025 fee increase assessment process; the number of approvals and refusals; the median and interquartile range of approved increases; and the average impact on parents net weekly fees after NCS subsidies. [45123/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Prior to the introduction of Core Funding, there was a wide variance of fees in the sector, with some services charging much lower fees than others while being held to the same fee freeze. To address this, and in addition to the 15% increase in Core Funding in year 3, a new Fee Increase Assessment process was introduced, whereby services could apply to increase their fees up to an approved level by my Department.

Only services charging low fees (fees below the average in their county) were eligible to apply. The onus was on the provider to demonstrate a need for a fee increase. This process opened for applications on 1 August 2024 and closed on 29 November 2024.

In total, 1145 applications to the Fee Increase Assessment process were received. Inclusive of appeal outcomes, 898 services that applied to the Fee Increase Assessment process were approved to increase at least one fee option from their fees list. 247 services that applied were unsuccessful and did not receive approval to increase any of their fees.

The number of services which were approved to increase at least one fee from their fees list represents 78.70% of all applicants to the Fee Increase Assessment, and 20.20% of all Partner Services in Core Funding.

The outcome of an assessment was determined by analysis of a service’s financial data, projected enrolments for the 2024/2025 programme year and the existing rates on their fee table. If a service’s income supported their reported expenditure in 2022/2023, plus an additional surplus of +15.18%, they were not granted permission to increase.

The fee table communicates the types of care that parents can avail of in a service but is not directly linked to actual enrolments. As a result, my Department does not have data relating to average impact on parents’ net weekly fees.

However, as part of the calculation underpinning the assessment, the level of increase approved under any given fee could not exceed the equivalent universal NCS subsidy enhancement of €0.74 per hour, which was introduced from September 2024. For example, an offering of 45 hours was eligible for a maximum increase of €33.30, whereas an offering of 20 hours would be eligible for a maximum increase of €14.80.

This ensured that, in the majority of cases, while a service’s fee may have been approved to increase, parents would not have seen any increase to their out-of-pocket costs relative to the previous programme year.