Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1984. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of childcare settings that have withdrawn from the core funding scheme and the number that have signed up to core funding scheme, in 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46372/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259m of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8m was entirely new funding. The fourth year of the scheme began on 1 September 2025, with an annual allocation of over €390 million.

95% of eligible providers signed up to Core Funding in it’s first year, 2022/2023, with a maximum of 4,248 services participating at any one time in this year.

94% of eligible providers signed up to Core Funding in it’s second year, 2023/2024, with a maximum of 4,373 services participating at any one time.

92% of eligible providers signed up to Core Funding in it’s third year, 2024/2025, with a maximum of 4,446 services participating at any one time.

As of 4 September 2025, 83% of eligible providers had signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding, 2025/2026, or 4,070 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.

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 There are a number of reasons that a service might fall into this definition, for example a service could have withdrawn from the scheme, been removed from the scheme for breach or rules, or experienced a delay in re-contracting following a change of circumstance application or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. 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 breakdown of services that left Core Funding in each programme year is below. Some services may have left and rejoined multiple times across the three years, and therefore the figures cannot be summed across programme years from the breakdown below.

• 183 services had left the 2022/2023 programme year of Core Funding (Year 1), of which 159 have since rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on 5 August 2025. The other 24 open services who left in the first year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• 303 services had left the 2023/2024 programme year of Core Funding (Year 2), of which 187 have since rejoined the scheme and were participating in Core Funding on 5 August 2025. The other 116 open services who left in the second year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• 19 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 5 August 2025. The other 9 open services who left in the third year of the scheme were not participating on 5 August 2025.
• 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 – one in Dun Laoighre Rathdown and one in Kildare.