Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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182. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the position regarding developments towards reaching the commitment to reducing childcare costs to €200 per child, per month, in the context of a number of childcare providers pulling out of the core funding scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27968/26]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Phase 1 report of Shaping the Future: The Early Years Action Plan was published on 17 December. The report sets out the next steps in the delivery of a number of Programme for Government commitments relating to Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare.

A central objective of Shaping the Future is to reduce parental fees to an upper limit of €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government.

The Phase 1 report focuses on short-term actions to be undertaken in 2026 within the budgetary resources available for the year. Phase 1 actions on affordability in Shaping the Future will deliver tangible steps towards the €200 commitment in 2026.

Phase 1 actions will include co-funding the expansion of existing providers as well as increasing supply through investment in State-led ELC and SAC services. The allocation for Core Funding will be increased to €482m for programme year 2026-27 (an increase of up to 23%) to support capacity growth in the sector and sustainability of providers, and to support providers to meet the costs of increases in staff minimum wage rates through a possible 2026 round of negotiations for new Employment Regulation Orders.

It is important to stress that both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Shaping the Future: the Early Years Action Plan are being informed by an extensive range of research, data-analysis, and public consultation processes that have been undertaken over recent years and that continue.

In line with the Programme for Government commitment, a broad public consultation process is currently underway. An online survey has been completed, with more than 11,000 responses. Local consultation events will take place between the 20 - 30 April 2026 and are being organised with the City and County Childcare Committees.

Results of this consultation process, as well as additional analysis, will inform Phase 2 of the Action Plan. Phase 2 actions will be undertaken from 2027 to 2029. The Action Plan adopts a phased approach that enables action to be taken in 2026 while allowing adequate time for the broad public consultation and analysis on longer-term actions, which will be set out in a second report, to be published by the end of 2026.

A key feature of Core Funding is the introduction of a system of fee management, 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 Core Funding 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 and the ECCE programme are 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.

I am aware that a small number of services have regrettably chosen to withdraw from the Core Funding scheme. The Department, through the local Childcare Committees, engages directly with any such service to highlight the benefits of staying in Core Funding, not only for their services but also for the families who avail of them.

It should be noted that of the 592 services that have left the scheme at one point, some 415 services were contracted to Core Funding as of 3 November 2025 - meaning over 70% of services who left the scheme at one point have now returned to Core Funding.

I wish to remind the Deputy that uptake of Core Funding remains strong. The fourth year of Core Funding began on 1 September and as of 13 April there were 4,630 services signed up to Year 4 of Core Funding. These are the highest numbers of Partner Services in Core Funding at any point since the scheme was launched in 2022 and represent 93% of all eligible services.

I am encouraged by this rate of participation: it shows that Core Funding is working as intended, and the vast majority of families will continue to benefit from the scheme’s fee management conditions.

Regardless of whether the service is participating in Core Funding, services remain eligible to provide the National Childcare Scheme, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Saver programme.

These schemes have made a significant impact on improving affordability of early learning and childcare for families.