Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 October 2024
292. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he could provide a list of all childcare services in Dublin 1, 3, 9 and 11 that have withdrawn from core funding. [42224/24]
View answerThe introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259m of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.
This funding, which increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2, increased again by a further 15% in year 3 (to €331 million).
In view of the 15% increase in Core Funding in year 3 and the associated supports, including the increase in the flat rate allocation for sessional services to €5,000, the increase in the minimum Core Funding allocation to €14,000 and the introduction of the Fee Increase Assessment Process, I am confident that participation rates will continue to remain on par with previous years.
Currently, 90% of services have signed up to year 3 of Core Funding. The application rate for year 3 of Core Funding is similar to the application rate for the same period in 2023, with services continuing to sign up.
In Dublin 1, 3, 9 and 11, 135 services contracted to programme year 2 of Core Funding 2023/24.
During programme year 2, only 1 service contracted and withdrew. This service did not re-contract in programme year 3 (2024/25).
For programme year 3, 118 of these 135 services have contracted to Core Funding to date.
Of the 17 services that haven’t re-contracted, 3 have closed.
In total there are 120 services contracted for Core Funding in 2024/25 (Year 3) in these postal areas indicating that a small number of services have contracted for the first time in year 3.
