Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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64. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the supports she is providing crèches in rural areas with lower populations. [50164/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Investment in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) has quadrupled in the last 10 years from €260 million in 2015 to €1.37 billion in 2025.

The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support to help families with their early learning and childcare costs, via a subsidy paid directly to the childcare provider. All children in Ireland between 24 weeks and 15 years of age are eligible for the subsidy, and the subsidy is provided for up to 45 hours of childcare a week. The universal subsidy amount is €2.14 per hour, with additional support available depending on the family's income and the child's age. The NCS has grown significantly in recent years. The numbers of children benefitting from the Scheme are up more than 70% since 2022.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides free universal pre-school to children in the eligible age range. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year. The programme year runs from the end of August to the following June in line with the primary school year. The weekly ECCE capitation is €69.00 and is paid pro rata to the number of days a child is registered for the ECCE programme year. ECCE must be available free of charge to parents/guardians in return for this capitation.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a programme of supports designed to ensure that children with additional needs can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The goal of AIM is to empower early learning and care providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of quality early learning and care in any mainstream service participating in ECCE. AIM resources are allocated based on a child’s individual needs through targeted and universal supports.

In September 2024, my Department commenced the rollout of Equal Start, a major model of supports to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare. Children benefitting from Equal Start include children living in disadvantaged areas, Traveller children, Roma children, children availing of the National Childcare Scheme through a sponsor body, children experiencing homelessness and children in the International Protection system.

Equal Start is designed to be developed and rolled out in phases. Services with the highest level of need have been targeted in the early phases. 787 settings (serving 35,000 children - 4,700 from priority cohorts) identified as operating in a context of concentrated disadvantage have been given Equal Start designation and are now receiving additional supports.

When first introduced in 2022, Core Funding had an annual allocation of €259 million. That annual allocation has increased each year since and will exceed €390 million for year 4 of the Scheme, starting in September. This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years.

The Department has also made changes to improve the sustainability of providers through, for example, targeted measures for small and sessional services, a fee increase assessment and approval process for services with fees frozen at unsustainably low rates.

There are wider financial supports available from the Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, which can be accessed through their local City/County Childcare Committee while remaining within Core Funding.

I understand services in isolated rural areas may face revenue challenges due to the natural fluctuations in a small local population. As a part of the Case Management process, financial assistance under sustainability funding may be granted in respect of the ongoing operational expenditure and liabilities of a service facing and unable to deal with these challenges. This funding is designed to support the continued provision of ELC/SAC Services Providers in rural communities and encourage efficiency by providing governance and business model supports to support the long-term sustainability and safeguard invest

As part of the Case Management process, City or County Childcare Committees assist services with issues and difficulties that arise. The County Childcare Committees may refer Core Funding-partner services facing difficulties to Pobal and the Department to be considered for Sustainability Funding.

I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support to contact their County Childcare Committee to access case management supports. Contact details for the County Childcare Committee can be found online at the Department’s gov.ie website.