Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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779. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will review correspondence regarding foster carers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51597/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Foster carers play a vital and valued role in the care of the most vulnerable children in our society. Foster care is the preferred option for children who cannot live with their family of origin, and foster carers provide a safe, secure and stable home environment for these vulnerable children and young people.

The Programme for Government 2025 (PfG) sets out the Government’s intention to provide further support for foster carers, including further increases to the foster care allowance and the new Initial Placement Payment, a commitment to examine pension provision for foster carers, and examine eligibility for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance.

With regard to aftercare, Tusla provides financial support to eligible care leavers who are engaged in a qualifying educational course or training programme. The aftercare allowance amounts to €300 per week and is dependent on the eligible young adult attending an accredited education course, third level course or training programme as outlined in the young adult’s Aftercare Plan. The allowance is provided to cover a young adults day to day costs, including accommodation as they progress in their chosen accredited course or training program. Officials will continue to engage with and support Tusla in improving aftercare services for care leavers.

I am aware that eligibility for the State Pension (Contributory) is an area of genuine concern for foster carers. The PfG contains a commitment to develop a pension solution for foster carers in recognition of the enormous contribution they make to vulnerable children in our society, and to acknowledge their long-term commitment and to ensure that they are supported and valued after their fostering years. It should be noted that eligibility for the State Pension (Contributory) is a matter which falls under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection. I look forward to working closely with the Minister for Social Protection and Government colleagues, to progress efforts to improve pension provision for foster carers.

I welcome the recent announcement of the extension of eligibility for the Back to School Allowance to encompass foster carers. This measure is an important step in the Government’s commitment to providing further support to children in foster care. Payment of the Allowance falls wholly under the remit of the Department of Social Protection, and is aimed at helping families with the extra costs of clothing and footwear while attending school.

While I understand that there may be some concern among foster carers that the Allowance will be based on household income, I would note that the foster care allowance is disregarded for the purposes of this Allowance.

With regard to therapeutic services for children in care, Tusla has committed to a strategic approach seeking to deliver an integrated framework for these services as part of a three-year plan to establish the high-level framework and operating model for Tusla Therapeutic Services. As part of this plan Tusla has established multi-disciplinary teams across six service areas by recruiting Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists to work with existing therapeutic staff such as psychologists. Any additional funding requirements in respect of Tusla’s Therapeutic Services in Budget 2026 will be given due consideration by officials in my Department.

I have met with a number of foster care stakeholder bodies since becoming Minister for Children, including the Irish Foster Care Association, and I am keenly aware of the current challenges facing the sector. As Minister I fully intend to prioritise foster care and ensure that we build upon the suite of supports of which foster carers can avail.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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780. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide a regional breakdown of the childcare providers who have withdrawn from core funding, including both the number and proportion of providers in Dublin; and the steps she plans to take to encourage these providers to return, so that parents are not left paying the equivalent of a mortgage for their childcare. [51601/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is aware that some service providers have regrettably chosen to withdraw from Core Funding.

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 of rules, or experienced a delay in re-contracting following a change of circumstance application or between programme years. In relation to withdrawals specifically, services may choose to leave the scheme mid-year for a multitude of reasons including being denied a fee increase, temporary closures, financial difficulties and administrative requirements. 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 1,165 services in Dublin listed as being open on the Early Years Platform, of which 66 (6%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years and continued to operate outside of this scheme on this date. A further 92 services (8%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years but later rejoined and were signed up to the third year of the scheme on this date. The overwhelming majority of services, 904 (or 78%), had continued to participate in Core Funding from the date on which they first signed up for the scheme. I am also aware that between 5 and 31 August 2025, one additional services located in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown reached the end of their notice period and withdrew from Core Funding.

The fourth year of Core Funding began on 1 September 2025 and as of 26 September, 4,379 services have signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding. This represents an increase of 5 per cent on this point in time last year. Every year there are a number of services who sign up to Core Funding in the weeks following the commencement of the programme year. Officials in the Department will be working to update these figures, reflecting an accurate assessment regarding participation in the fourth year of the scheme.

A breakdown, by Local Authority Area in Dublin, is below in tabular format.

Core Funding has been designed with maximum participation of providers in mind as reflected in the year-on-year growth of investment in the Scheme (rising from €259 million in year 1 to over €390 million in year 4). This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years.

The 2025/2026 allocation represents an increase of over €60 million (over 18%) on the previous programme year, which will facilitate:

• Support for providers in meeting the costs of increases in minimum pay rates as a result of newly negotiated Employment Regulation Orders by the independent Joint Labour Committee;
• Increased funding for early learning and care capacity offered to ensure Partner Services can keep pace with rising costs without needing to increase fees charged to parents;
• An increase to the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive, increasing to €14,400 per year from the current level of €14,000;
• A reduction in the maximum allocation for a service’s capacity to €450,000 to best spread a limited budget across the entire sector; and
• Funding to support capacity growth of 3.5% across the sector.

• access to wider financial supports where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability;
• access to enhanced support for services caring for concentrated numbers of children facing disadvantage through Equal Start; and
• opportunities to apply for capital grants through the Department.