Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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1952. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of persons with a disability both nationally and in county Carlow registered and the number accessing services both nationally and in county Carlow to date in 2025. [45775/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As this question refers to service matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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1953. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early education providers that have left the core funding scheme from its inception to date in 2025, in tabular form; the measures she is taking to ensure that providers stay within the scheme; and the supports her department is offering to families that can no longer afford creche spaces after their provider has left the scheme. [45783/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, a service that left Core Funding is defined 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 There are a number of reasons that a service might fall into this definition, for example a service could have withdrawn from the scheme, been removed from the scheme for breach or rules, or experienced a delay in re-contracting following a change of circumstance application or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. 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.

A breakdown of services engagement with Core Funding as of 5 August 2025 is below. On this date there were 4,807 services listed as being open on the Early Years Platform.

I am aware that between 5 and 31 August 2025, two additional services reached the end of their notice period and withdrew from Core Funding.

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.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is available to families using either partner or non-partner services as a way of reducing their early learning and childcare costs. A minimum of €2.14 per hour, for a maximum of 45 weekly hours is available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years of age. Higher rates may be available through an Income Assessed award, depending on a family’s individual circumstances.

A valid NCS award can be used with any early learning and childcare provider who has contracted to deliver the Scheme. Families can engage with their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance in sourcing alternative childcare places, if necessary. Details of local CCCs can be found here. Alternatively, a Childcare Search function is available on www.ncs.gov.ie which details a full list of the services offering the NCS and/or other programmes such as ECCE or whether they are contracted to Core Funding (i.e. Partner Services).