Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 November 2025
550. Deputy Michael Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will review the administrative and compliance obligations associated with the core funding model, which providers have described as onerous and disproportionate; the planned reforms to reduce the reporting burden; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65054/25]
View answerI acknowledge the increase in administration for providers with the introduction of schemes such as the NCS and Core Funding. A number of steps are being taken to reduce the administrative workload. In relation to Core Funding, improvements have been made to the application module since the commencement of Core Funding including a cloning facility, to enhance the user experience. A Universal Fee Table has been in place since 2023, which enables services to upload one single fee table that covers all schemes. The Parent Statement has also been refined so that one agreement now covers all schemes, and this only has to be signed once between the provider and parent irrespective of fee changes.
I am also mindful of the recommendation in the Partnership for Public Good of the need to consider administrative burdens on Core Funding Partner Services. Accordingly, it should be noted that work is well advanced on the Programme for Government commitment to develop an Action Plan for Administrative and Regulatory Simplification for the Early Learning and Childcare Sector.
To inform this plan, a review of the end-to-end processes linked to publicly-funded early learning and childcare schemes/programmes has been completed. A report of the findings of this review has been produced. Following recent further engagement with the sector, and these reports, the Action Plan will be finalised in 2025.
Funding to support administration costs for providers is included in Core Funding. This replaces the Programme Support Payments (PSP), which supported early learning and childcare providers in meeting the costs arising from the administrative work associated with the Department’s schemes, and for the time required to perform activities outside of contact time with children. The budget previously allocated to PSP has now been incorporated into Core Funding. In addition, the contribution towards staff pay and conditions under Core Funding takes account of both contact time and non-contact time.
The Department’s commitment to collating ‘transparent and robust’ data is one of the factors that has facilitated the strong and ongoing government commitment to Core Funding. When Core Funding was introduced in 2022, its allocation amounted to €259 million, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.
In Budget 2026, I secured an allocation for Core Funding of €405.35 million – representing a 57% increase in Core Funding in four years. Such significant investment continues to be contingent on the Department collating and analysing robust data, as it is only with such data that insights into cost patterns and potential imbalances of costs vs expenditure in the sector can be ironed out.
Further to this, I am required to ensure all Exchequer funding is managed in a clear and transparent manner. This includes a requirement to ensure robust and transparent Financial Reporting structures are in place.
Due to these requirements, and as part of their agreement with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality, Core Funding Partner Services are required to submit comprehensive and validated financial returns.
All reports must be uploaded to the Core Funding Contractual Requirements Reporting System (CFCRRS) at www.cfcrrs.ie. For the 2024/25 Programme Year, services must submit a Trial Balance.
All financial reports must be provided to the Department by being uploaded to CFCRRS no later than 6 months after the end of the given programme year. All financial reports submitted to the Department must be validated and submitted by a Registered Accountant. Failure to do so may mean the withholding of funding until the report is submitted.
As notice of the Trial Balance requirement was provided two years ago, it is anticipated that most services have been making appropriate adjustments to finance records in preparation for this, including for example, use of the Financial Management Tool and negotiating rates with suitably qualified accountants.
There is a free Financial Management Tool, which is on the Hive, or if services wish to use other accountancy products they can do so.
On the Hive, service providers will find the Chart of Accounts and Nominal Codes Explanations, to be shared with their accountants, as the accountants will be required to submit the services’ Trial Balance according to these codes on the portal (cfcrrs.ie) when it opens in February 2026.
Any Partner Service or Accountancy firm working on behalf of the Partner Service experiencing difficulty can contact the Department directly at support@cfcrrs.ie.
There is considerable information and guidance for Partner Services to assist them in making their financial return available on the following link - Core Funding – Documents - Service Provider Portal.
The CFCRRS.ie portal will open in Q1 2026. There will be a number of documents available to assist, including an FAQ, Guidelines and How to Videos.
Core Funding supports Partner Services with their financial sustainability while enhancing the quality, affordability, and accessibility of their services. In accordance with Partnership for the Public Good, Core Funding commits to drive high-quality service provision. To support this, when introduced in 2022, Core Funding required all early learning and care (ELC), school-age childcare (SAC) and childminding services that benefit from Core Funding to complete an annual Quality Action Plan, using tools provided by the Department and their agents.
In 2024 the Equal Start model was introduced. The fourth element of the Together for Better funding model, Equal Start provides additional universal and targeted measures to support the full participation of children experiencing disadvantage in ELC and SAC. Targeted service level supports are provided to priority settings identified as operating with the highest concentrations of disadvantage. The Equal Start model proposed that all ELC and SAC priority Tier 1 and Tier 2 services that benefit from Equal Start would develop and submit a Tackling Disadvantage Plan, using tools provided by the Department and their agents.
Diversity, equality, and inclusion are fundamental characteristics of quality early learning and care and school age childcare provision. In recognising this, and in an effort to minimise the administrative ask of Partner Services, the contractually required Tackling Disadvantage Plan and Quality Action Plan were amalgamated into a single Quality and Inclusive Practice Plan (QIPP).
The Core Funding scheme is built around the principle of compliance by design to ensure proper governance of the scheme, with various validations and checks in the Core Funding application form. In addition to the validations built into the application form in 2024/25, Pobal Compliance conducted a number of pilot compliance visits for Partner Services receiving the Graduate Lead Educator Premium on behalf of the Department.
In this current programme year, Graduate Lead Educator compliance checks will be carried out in Partner Services.
The Department is cognisant of the administration requirements on providers but must balance the requirements of the scheme and protect exchequer funding. As such, the attendance records required to facilitate this compliance check are aligned with those outlined in the Tusla Quality and Regulatory Framework for Full Day Care Service and Part-Time Day Care Services.
