Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the means by which Budget 2026 will support the delivery of affordable and accessible childcare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61445/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is fully committed to promoting affordability for parents and viability for businesses through Core Funding.

Core Funding is a supply-side grant to early learning and childcare providers towards their operating costs. It is designed to promote affordability for parents and sustainability for providers through increased funding to the sector, paid on a consistent and equitable basis.

Budget 2026 sees an allocation of €405 million for Core Funding. This is an increase of €52 million on the 2025 allocation of €353 million – representing a 15% year-on-year increase.

The additional funding being made available in 2026 will allow for a 4.2% increase in growth of the sector in year five of the scheme. This growth increase will be driven both by new services joining the sector and existing services offering more places and/or longer hours to families. €14.45 million has been secured for this purpose in a full programme year.

When contracting to Core Funding, service providers agree to abide by the Scheme’s fee management system, which includes a fee freeze at September 2021 levels and maximum fee caps.

Maximum fee caps, which were introduced for new entrants to the Scheme in Year 3, have been reduced and extended to all new and existing Partner Services in Year 4.

Under these new fee caps, the fee for a full day place – of between 40-50 hours per week, the most common full day care operating hours – can be charged at no more than €295 per week (before State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) which brings the fee below €200 per week, and where age appropriate, the ECCE programme is deducted), with a fee cap of €354 for more than 50 hours of care.

€20.6 million in brand new full-year funding was secured in Budget 2026 to support providers in adhering to Core Funding fee management conditions, including further reductions in the maximum fee caps in the fifth year of the Scheme. This will guarantee that Core Funding’s monetary protections will continue to be passed on to families while ensuring sustainability and stability for the sector.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) was introduced in 2016 to ensure that children with a disability can access and participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. AIM provides both universal supports to pre-school settings and targeted supports tailored to individual children’s needs, without requiring a formal diagnosis. Reflecting the Government’s strong commitment to affordable and accessible childcare, the AIM budget will reach €86.05 million in 2026 — an increase of 50% since 2024. This funding will support up to 9,000 children to access the ECCE programme in 2026 through targeted AIM supports, as well as a 10% increase in the capitation rate for AIM Level 7, which was introduced from October 2025.

€22.3 million has been allocated for Equal Start in Budget 2026, which will support children experiencing disadvantage to access and participate in early learning and childcare through a suite of supports.

The budget allocation will fund the continued rollout of the Traveller Parenting Support Programme in 17 Tusla areas, with responsibilities on Family Link Workers to engage with Traveller parents of young children, supporting them to attend and participate in early learning and childcare. Two Traveller and Roma Advisory Specialists have been appointed in Better Start to promote inclusive early learning and childcare.

The Equal Start allocation will continue to provide for additional staffing hours in 2026 that can be used to support engagement between the settings and families, as well as other child and family support services, for services operating in a context of concentrated disadvantage.

The 2026 Equal Start budget allocation will fund the first full year of programme delivery of Bia Blasta, the new pre-school nutrition programme. Bia Blasta which will provide funding for services offering the ECCE programme in Equal Start Tier 1 and Tier 2 settings, helping them to provide a shared simple nutritious meal and working towards addressing food poverty.

€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, continued investment in expansion of existing early learning and childcare operators through the Building Blocks scheme and a number of quality initiatives including supports to childminders.