Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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43. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the position regarding the gradual reduction of childcare costs, as committed to in the Programme for Government; the steps she has taken to progress this policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49129/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child.” This commitment will be achieved over the lifetime of the Government.

The Deputy will be aware that the maximum fee caps were extended to all Partner Services in Core Funding this month. The introduction of fee-caps is an important step towards the reduction of parental fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government.

While the maximum fee-caps were introduced for new services last year, they now cover all services that are in Core Funding. In addition, the new fee-caps are set at a lower level than before. The maximum fee for a full-day place of between 40-50 hours per week (which is the most common full day care operating hours) is €295 per week (before State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme and the ECCE programme are deducted), and the maximum fee for 50+ hours is €354.

This latest measure builds on a range of supports already in place. The ECCE programme provides two years of preschool without charge and has participation rates of 96%. More than 70% of families say that if it was not a free service, they would never have been able to access it.

The National Childcare Scheme complements the ECCE programme, giving universal and targeted subsidies to reduce costs to parents. Recent improvements include the extension of the universal subsidy to children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, now worth €2.14 hourly for up to 45 hours, or a maximum of €96.30 per week. Almost 220,000 children benefited from a subsidy in 2024. Since last September, children in childminding settings can also benefit from National Childcare Scheme subsidies.

The fee management system introduced through Core Funding has made sure the investment in affordability is not absorbed by unnecessary fee increases. Core Funding has enjoyed high participation rates to date, with 92% of services taking part in the 2024/25 programme year. Currently, the rate of uptake for the upcoming year is just under 90% - which is consistent with previous years of Core Funding, and services can sign up to the fourth year of the scheme at any point over the course of the programme year.

Preparations for the first Estimates process for this Government are underway, and I am committed to bringing forward proposals to make further progress in this area.

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 fees further to €200 per month.