Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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1906. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the additional core funding provision being made to offset the sectoral pay floor increase to €15 an hour and related grade uplifts; and to provide her Department’s estimate of the marginal cost per full-time place. [45126/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the State is not the employer of staff in the sector, neither I nor my Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.

The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders.

I acknowledge the Joint Labour Committee is independent in its functions, and I do not have a role in its statutory negotiation processes.

However, outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding.

Core Funding has seen consistent increased State investment to the sector year on year and is set in Year 4 (September 2025 – August 2026) 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.

This includes a maximum of €45 million in State funding specifically ringfenced to support providers in meeting the costs of increases in minimum rates of pay arising from the independent Joint Labour Committee process.

In line with the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts, the Joint Labour Committee is independent in its functions, and neither I nor the Department have a statutory role in its processes.

€45 million in State funding to support services to meet costs of increased minimum rates of pay in the sector will be made available to services once JLC proposed new rates are approved and new Employment Regulation Orders are given effect.

In the 2025/2026 programme year a new Core Funding element, the Staff Funding Additional Contribution, will be introduced to centre-based services to distribute this ringfenced funding. This new element of Core Funding will support Partner Services to meet the costs of increasing rates of pay as a result of the new Employment Regulation Orders negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee.

The calculation of the Staff Funding Additional Contribution per service is linked to the staffing requirements set out by the regulations, and the minimum staffing hours required to operate a service’s staffed capacity.

Minimum staffing hours are the minimum contact hours that a service must staff in order to satisfy the regulatory adult to child ratios.

As the Staff Funding Additional Contribution is based on minimum staffing hours, it is not possible to provide a cost per full-time place.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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1907. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide details of the quarterly dashboards showing average gross fees by county and care type; the average net fees after subsidy and participation rates in core funding, drawing on the Pobal Early Years Data Warehouse. [45127/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Average Fees by County & Fee Type

My Department does not collate data in the manner requested by the Deputy in relation to quarterly fee dashboards or average net fees after subsidy. Information relating to average gross fees (before subsidies are applied) is summarised below.

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. 4,622 services with an active DCDE contract for the 2023/24 programme year were invited to complete the Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey 2023/24. Data from the survey was collected between 7 May and 7 June 2024. A total of 4,021 services completed the survey, with a response rate of 87%.

As part of the AEYSP survey, service providers are asked to indicate the fee charged for each care type before deductions for subsidies are applied.

Early Learning and Care

The most recently published fee data for the 2023/24 programme year indicates that the average (median) weekly fee per child before subsidies was €190.00 for full day early learning and care.

It is important to note that a universal subsidy which is not means tested is available to all parents using the National Childcare Scheme and provides €2.14 per hour for a maximum of 45 hours per week (ie up to €96.30 per week). Alternatively, there is an income-assessed subsidy which is means tested and will be calculated based on a family’s individual circumstances. Rates will vary depending on the level of family income, the child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in the family.

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 highest fees for full day provision in 2023/24 were charged by services in Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, where the average full-time fees were reported at €258.57. Whereas the lowest full day fees (€150.00) were in Leitrim.

Table 1. Service reported average* fees by county for early learning and care

School Age Care

The most recently published fee data for the 2023/24 programme year indicates that the average (median) weekly fee per child before subsidies was €165.00 for out of term school age care. The highest fees for out of term school age care was charged by services in Dublin – Dún-Laoghaire-Rathdown and in Dublin – Fingal, both at €200.00. Whereas the lowest out of term fees were in Leitrim at €132.50.

Table 2. Service reported average* fees by county for school age care

The most recently published fee data from the 2023/24 programme year is available at . Data collection for the 2024/25 survey took place between 06 May and 03 June 2025. In total, 4,225 services completed the survey during the data collection window, with a response rate of 87%. Data cleaning is currently in progress and the results will be published on the Early Learning and Childcare Data website as soon as they are available.

ECCE & NCS Policy

My Department provides a number of schemes which aim to reduce the cost of childcare for families. The Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (ECCE) provides two years of pre-school without charge and enjoys participation rates of 96% each year. 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 Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC). The minimum NCS subsidy has steadily risen from €0.50 in 2022, to €1.40 an hour in January 2023, and to €2.14 in September 2024 alongside extensions to eligibility. Higher subsidies are also available to families on lower incomes.

Core Funding Participation Rates

92% of services participated in the third year of Core Funding, with a record number of services participating. The fourth year of Core Funding commenced on 1 September 2025. As of 2nd September, 81% of eligible providers had signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding, 2025/2026, or 3,981 services. This is on par with the same point in previous years, and in fact there are a greater number of services contracted this year than at 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. I am encouraged by the high engagement with the application process to date and the similarities to trends in uptake in the previous two years.