Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1539. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if additional capital funding will be made available to early years providers in County Meath to expand or upgrade facilities participating in the ECCE program; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59117/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Improving access to quality and affordable Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare is a key priority of Government.

Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2023/24 shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% from the 2021/22 programme year.

The Department continues to support the ongoing development and resourcing of Core Funding which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. Core Funding funds services based on the number of places available. This provides stability to services, and reduces the risk associated with opening a new service or expanding an already existing service.

The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme is designed to increase capacity in the 1–3-year-old, pre–Early Childhood Care and Education, age range for full day care. Core Funding Partner Services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or to construct or purchase new premises. The Scheme will deliver up to 1,500 full-day care places for 1- to 3-year-olds. The shortlisted services are now working with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office in completing the legal formalities of the scheme. I look forward to seeing these projects progress over the coming months.

The Programme for Government commits for the first time to provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. State ownership of facilities is a very substantial and significant development and offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand. This work will be supported through capital investment under the revised National Development Plan.

As announced in the context of Budget 2026, €36 million will be available in 2026 for early learning and childcare capital programmes. This will include acquisitions of new buildings through the State-led early learning and childcare programme, investment in expansion of existing early learning and childcare operators through a further Building Blocks scheme and a number of quality initiatives including supports to childminders.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1540. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality when she plans to increase the capitation rate for ECCE providers to reflect on the rising operational and staff costs in County Meath; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59118/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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ECCE is a free two-year preschool programme available to all children within the eligible age range. ECCE is a play-based learning programme. The programme runs from September to June each year, aligned with the primary school calendar. ECCE is not mandatory, but is very successful, with an estimated 96% of children in the eligible age range attending.

To deliver the ECCE Programme, preschool providers receive a capitation of €69 per child per week. This was increased from €64.50 in September 2018.

When Core Funding services was introduced in 2022, services previously in receipt of ECCE standard capitation (of €69 per week per child) received an addition €9.75 per child per week through Core Funding – an increase of 9.5%. For the coming programme year, ECCE capitation and Core Funding combined will be €80.40.

Core Funding has seen consistent increased State investment to the sector year on year and is set in year 4 to be worth over €390 million contingent on the establishment of new minimum rates of pay in the sector through updated Employment Regulation Orders. This is an increase of over 50% since the scheme began in September 2022 with an allocation of €259 million.

The graduate premiums provide additional funding on the basis of graduate leadership in a service. Both the Graduate Lead Educator Premium and the Graduate Manager Premium are paid out a rate of €4.44 per graduate-led hour for early learning and childcare provision.

The targeted measures consist of a flat rate top-up for sessional-only services, a minimum base rate allocation and a maximum base rate allocation. The flat rate top-up for sessional-only services is paid out at an annual rate of €5,000 per service or a weekly rate of €96.15 to services who are registered with Tusla to offer only sessional provision.

The minimum base rate allocation is currently set at €14,400. Any centre-based service whose base rate allocation (and flat rate allocation where applicable) falls below this level will see their grant automatically topped up to the minimum allocation.

The maximum base rate allocation is currently set at €450,000. No service will receive more than this amount in respect of their capacity. The Graduate Premiums and Staff Funding Additional Contribution are applied separately and can bring a services allocation above the minimum or maximum value.

This year, the Staff Funding Additional Contribution is a newly introduced element of the grant designed to distribute the ring-fenced funding for improving staff pay and conditions, contingent on the establishment of updated Employment Regulation Orders. This funding is ring-fenced for staff pay and conditions and can only be used for this purpose, and €45 million is available for this purpose.

The calculation of the Staff Funding Additional Contribution per service is linked to the staffing requirements set out by regulations and reflects that the funding that has been available for graduate-led provision for the previous three years can and should be facilitating higher rates of pay for graduates.

The release of the funding is contingent on the establishment of updated Employment Regulation Orders by the independent Joint Labour Committee.

It is important to note that although there are various elements used to derive the grants for individual services, the eligible areas of expenditure of the Core Funding grant are much broader. Services can choose how to spend their Core Funding grant in accordance with the approved areas of expenditure outlined in the Funding Agreement. The Staff Funding Additional Contribution is the only element of the grant which has a prescribed use.

The year 4 allocation reflects increases secured in Budget 2025 to facilitate 3.5% capacity growth and to ensure that providers have increased income to continue to be able to meet rising costs whilst maintaining an effective fee freeze.

Unlike other funding streams within the Department, a place does not need to be filled for a service to receive funding, but the service does need to have the necessary staffing in place to meet the regulatory adult to child ratios.

Since September 2025, services receive a minimum of €80.40 per ECCE child per week. This is before the application of graduate premiums, targeted measures, and the ring-fenced funding for improving staff pay and conditions.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1541. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide details on staffing shortages within the early years and ECCE sector in County Meath; the supports being provided to recruit and retain qualified staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59119/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In a very competitive labour market and with low levels of unemployment, recruitment and retention is a challenge for all employers.

It is acknowledged many early learning and childcare services report recruitment and retention challenges. In general, these challenges are not caused by insufficient supply of staff, but by high levels of turnover.

Data from the 2024 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey shows the national turnover rate for the sector was approximately 25.8%, however the turnover rate for County Meath was 21.1%. of which, nearly 35% of the turnover rate for Meath reflects staff moving from one provider to another.

Improvement in pay is certainly key to improving recruitment and retention rates, as is the full implementation of Nurturing Skills.

Pay is one of a number of issues impacting the early learning and care and school-age childcare workforce. The level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners does not reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy.

Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages or conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding. In this programme year 2025/26 Core Funding has increased by 6% to €350 million with an additional €45 million in ring-fenced Core Funding provided to support early learning and care services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector.

As recently announced, the Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail Alan Dillon has signed new Employment Regulation Orders for Early Years Educators and School-Age Practitioners.

The Orders commenced on 13th October 2025. They provide for an average of 10% increase to minimum hourly rates of pay. It is estimated that 67% of those working in the sector will see their wages increase as a result of the new minimum pay rates.

The Government remains committed to ‘continue to implement Employment Regulation Orders to attract and retain early years educators’, as provided for in the Programme for Government.

"Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028" aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in the sector. One of the five "pillars" of Nurturing Skills comprises commitments aimed at supporting recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce, and it includes actions to raise the profile of careers in the sector.

The Plan includes role profiles, a career framework and commitments to support early years educators to up-skill and develop their careers. It also includes commitments to reduce staff turnover, to attract graduates to enter and remain in the sector along with actions to actively promote careers in Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare.

Officials also continue to discuss issues of recruitment and retention with stakeholders through a Sub-Group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum.

The general consensus of the Group is that pay is the single biggest issue but the Group continues to identify other actions, including:

* A Student Fast-track Process for recognition of studies to work in service out of term,

* The assessment of unfinished qualifications, where people who may have started a relevant qualification but did not get to finish it, can have what they completed assessed for meeting qualification requirements

* An agreement with providers to promote careers in the sector.