Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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148. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality for a progress report on the Programme for Government Commitment to reduce childcare costs to €200 per month per child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61570/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I have committed to reduce monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government. The steps in achieving this ambition over the coming years will be set out in the Action Plan on Accessible, High Quality, Affordable Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, which the Department is continuing to develop.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, the Action Plan will be informed by a broad consultation process. I will provide further detail on the Action Plan and the consultation process at the earliest opportunity.

In the immediate term, the investment of €1.48bn secured in the 2026 budget for early learning and care and school-age childcare will allow the Department to build on recent progress in the gradual reduction of fees for parents, while also supporting supply and the quality of provision.

Budget 2026 enables Core Funding to continue to support fee-control measures and will also allow for growth in the sector. The allocation for Core Funding in 2026 will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. As well as this, there will be new maximum fee caps set to reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country. Further details of the new, lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months.

The 2026 allocation for Core Funding will also support implementation of the recently announced Employment Regulation Orders, which led to a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators from 13 October.

There will also be enhancements in Year 5 of Core Funding to improve pay for educators and school age childcare practitioners with implementation of new Employment Regulation Orders.

Capital funding is also being made available in 2026 for the sector.

Further steps will be detailed in the Action Plan, which will look at affordability, access and quality of the early learning and care and school-age childcare system.

These three attributes – affordability, accessibility and quality – are closely connected and the ways in which they interact is complex.

It will be essential that we make progress in all three areas in parallel in order to deliver on our vision.

Officials are working on an integrated approach to minimise the risk of unintended consequences and to identify opportunities to address multiple policy challenges at the same time.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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149. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to consider introducing financial supports for community-based childcare providers operating outside the ECCE framework, particularly those based in schools that cannot operate during school closures; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61541/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I do not want any Provider to be faced with financial sustainability issues in their delivery of Early Learning and Childcare services. In addition to the childcare subsidy schemes offered, there are wider financial supports available from my Department. Where a community service is experiencing financial difficulty or has viability concerns, these supports can be accessed while remaining within Core Funding. However, while the Department provides funding to the early learning and childcare sector it does not directly operate or manage early learning and childcare services. Decisions about the day-to-day running of services, including their chosen business model or base of operations, ultimately lie with the provider. In this instance, accessibility to school grounds during school closure is not within the Department’s remit and is a matter for discussion between the service operator and school management.

Since 2017, the Department has offered Sustainability Funding to community ELC/SAC services in crisis. In 2018, a Sustainability Funding policy was formalised, and a framework was created which coupled this Sustainability Funding with on-the-ground case management assistance. The purpose of the supports within this framework were to provide emergency funding to community services where a need for funding was identified while also ensuring that the case management performed at a service level identified and resolved underlying issues that may have caused the initial crisis.

As part of the Case Management process, City or County Childcare Committees (CCC) assist services with issues and difficulties that arise. The CCC may refer Core Funding-partner services facing difficulties to Pobal and the Department to be considered for Sustainability Funding. Sustainability Funding is intended to prevent significant issues that threaten the viability of a service. Any service seeking these supports should contact their City or County Childcare Committee.

This support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting and analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, financial support, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.

I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like assistance to contact their CCC to access case management supports. Contact details for the CCCs can be found at .