Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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508. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the plans for any reforms to ensure that rural based early years services remain within the Core Funding system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [68105/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Core Funding is a supply-side grant to providers designed to support quality, sustainability, and affordability for parents through associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency.

Core Funding operates alongside the National Childcare Scheme, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and Equal Start and constitutes additional income for providers on top of funding for these schemes, as well as income from parental fees.

As of 3 November 2025, there were 5,035 services listed as being open on the Early Years Platform, of which 177 (4%) had left Core Funding at one point over the lifetime of the scheme to this date and continue to operate outside of this scheme. A further 415 services (8%) had left Core Funding at one point over the lifetime of the scheme to this date but later rejoined and were signed up to the fourth year of the scheme on this date. The overwhelming majority of services, 4,157 or 83%, have continued to participate in Core Funding from the date on which they first signed up for the scheme.

The table below provides a breakdown of the services that left Core Funding in each programme year by county division. Some services may have left and rejoined multiple times across the three years, and therefore the figures cannot be aggregated across programme years from the breakdown below.

It should be noted that of the services tabulated above, over 70% of services had returned to participate in Core Funding as of 3 November 2025.

When first introduced in 2022, Core Funding brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in first year of the scheme. Investment in Core Funding has continued to increase year-on-year, rising to over €390 million for the fourth, and current, programme year.

Within the Core Funding allocation for the current programme year, €45 million has been ring-fenced to support employers in meeting the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay across the sector, as set out under the updated Employment Regulation Orders.

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

• The Base Rates for all age groups increasing, with larger increases in funding for places offered to children under the age of three. In short, all providers currently signed up to Core Funding will receive a higher payment going forward to support their day-to-day costs.
• The flat rate for services registered on the Tusla Early Years Register as sessional-only increased from €4,075 to €5,000. This will strengthen supports to sessional-only services, who typically operate for shorter hours per week and fewer weeks per year.
• The minimum Base Rate allocation increased from €8,150 to €14,000. This is the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive through their Base Rate. This ensures a minimum guaranteed income for services. This increase supports smaller services and services operating in rural areas, who may be prone to fluctuations in demand.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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509. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early years services in Louth that are currently supported through the core funding model; the number of services in the county that left the core funding system in the years 2022 to 2024, and to date in 2025, respectively; if she will provide the names of the services that have left the system in each of the years in question, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [68106/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In total, data from Pobal confirms that, as of 26 November, there are 113 providers operating in Co. Louth – 109 of whom are in receipt of Core Funding – representing a 96.46% county-wide take-up rate of Core Funding.

While the Department cannot mandate providers to participate in the Scheme, every effort has been made to carefully design Core Funding to meet the policy objectives including to achieve high levels of participation by providers.

Participation in Core Funding is optional, but it remains open throughout the year to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the Scheme.

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 why a service might fall into this definition. For example, a service may 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. 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 that are not captured in the figures below.

The table below provides a breakdown of the services in Louth that left Core Funding in each programme year. Some services may have left and rejoined multiple times across the three years, and therefore the figures cannot be summed across programme years from the breakdown below.

It should be noted that of the 11 services in Louth that have left the scheme at one point, 10 services were contracted to Core Funding as of 3 November 2025 - meaning over 90% of services in Louth who left the scheme at one point have now returned to Core Funding.

The Department does not provide the names of services that have left the scheme. However, the Department has a list of all Core Funding Partner Services which is updated regularly on the Departments website under www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/publications/how-to-find-a-partner-service/.