Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
860. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the key measures taken to improve childcare and early learning services during 2025; her priorities for same in 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72473/25]
View answerThis year 50 projects were approved for capital funding to deliver additional capacity under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme by supporting building projects by existing services.
The scheme is focused on supporting the creation of additional full-time places for children aged 1-3 through extensions to existing buildings or, in the case of not-for-profit community services, construction or purchase of buildings.
The approved services are now working closely with the Department in preparation for the delivery of up to 1,500 new quality and affordable places across the country, beginning to become available over the course of 2026.
The Forward Planning and Delivery Unit has been allocated additional resources and staff and is pursuing an ambitious programme of work to identify areas of need, forecast demand and prepare for the delivery of public supply within the early learning and childcare sector where required.
A forward planning model is in development which will be central to the Department's plans to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system, with State-led facilities adding capacity.
The forward planning model is now being used to produce analysis to inform the development of the capital programme.
Detailed policy development is underway to prepare proposals for the implementation of the Programme for Government commitment to provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities, to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists.
As announced in this Department’s Sectoral Investment Plan, the NDP allocated €197m for early learning and childcare capital programmes for 2026-2030. This will include investment in new buildings through the State-led early learning and childcare programme, 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.
The Nurturing Skills Annual Implementation Report 2024 was published earlier this year, which provides an update on progress on the implementation of ‘Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028’.
Regarding 'The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028’. 2025 saw The Nurturing Skills Learner Fund continuing to fund the initial intake of educators in 2025 and addition funding was provided for a further cohort of 350 staff to begin their studies in Autumn 2025.
The new Nurturing Skills website, nurturingskills.ie was launched in May 2025. This website delivers on a number of actions contained in the Nurturing Skills Implementation Plan, including the development of a hub for Continuing Professional Development and establishing a one-stop-shop on careers, qualifications and training opportunities in the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector.
A pilot Employee Assistance Programme has been developed via the City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs). Five CCCs have engaged in the pilot and will provide an employee assistance and staff wellbeing programme for their own employees and for employees of the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare services operating within their area. This pilot initiative aims to foster mental and emotional wellbeing by providing a range of supports for staff members during times of need (whether personal or professional). It is hoped to expand the programme nationwide in 2026. Minimum rates of pay for Early Years Educators and School-Age Childcare Practitioners
New Employment Regulation Orders for Early Years Educators and School-Age Practitioners commenced on 13 October 2025. They provide for an average of 10% increase to minimum hourly rates of pay. It is estimated that 67% of those working in the sector will see their wages increase as a result of the new minimum pay rates. The Government, through €45 million in ring-fenced Core Funding, is supporting early learning and care services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector. This will bring total Core Funding for services to over €390 million in the 2025/26 programme year
The Government remains committed to ‘continue to implement Employment Regulation Orders to attract and retain early years educators’ and to making available a similar sum in 2026 to support a possible future round of pay improvements negotiations through the JLC process in 2026.
In 2026 Nurturing Skills will have its mid-point review of its actions and an examination of priorities to 2028.
The Department will continue to support the recruitment and retention challenge in the sector through the promotion of the profession and continuing to support those in the sector to upskill through a new intake on the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund.
Record number of services operating within the fee freeze as part of Core Funding, which means that parents continue to fully benefit from National Childcare Scheme subsidies;
The new maximum fee cap, introduced for all Core Funding Partner Services in September 2025, places a limit on the maximum fees that can be charged across all types of provision.
This has reduced costs for families facing the highest fees across the country, contributing toward the long-term scheme goals of promoting affordability and accessibility for parents. A parent availing of 45 hours of care for their child, and who is also in receipt of the universal NCS subsidy, will not pay any more than €198.70 in out-of-pocket costs, provided the service is a Core Funding Partner Service.
For next year, €20.6 million in brand new funding for a full programme year has been secured to support providers in adhering to the Scheme’s fee management conditions, including further reductions in the maximum fee caps. 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.
For programme year 2025/2026, the Fee Tables of all applicants to the 2024/2025 Fee Increase Assessment process were required to be approved by local City/County Childcare Committees. This ensured appropriate implementation of fee increases where applicable; promotes standardisation of fee structures across the sector and improves transparency for parents.
For next year, the Fee Tables of all Partner Services undergo the same approval process. Core Funding is a supply-side grant to early learning and care (ELC) and/or school-age childcare (SAC) providers towards their operating costs. It is designed to improve:
Affordability for parents through ensuring no increases in fees, capping the maximum fees that can be charged, and offering the National Childhood Scheme (NCS) and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme to all eligible children;
Quality in services, including through better terms and conditions for staff and supporting graduate leadership in services, to strengthen practice and delivery of high-quality experience for children; and
Sustainability for providers through substantially increased funding to the sector, paid on a consistent and equitable basis.
The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme. This funding has increased year-on-year to over €390 million in the current fourth year of the scheme (September 2025 – August 2026). This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years.
Significant increases came into effect for the fourth year of the scheme, which runs from September 2025 to August 2026. These changes include:
• Increases to all the early learning and care base rates, to ensure Partner Services can keep pace with rising costs without needing to increase fees charged to parents,
• Increases to the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive, increasing from €14,400 per year from the previous level of €14,000, to support smaller services,
• A reduction to the maximum base rate allocation to best spread a limited budget across the entire sector,
• Increased funding to support capacity growth of 3.5% across the sector, and
• Includes an additional €45 million in ring-fenced State funding provided to support outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process.
The Department has announced further investment in Core Funding in Budget 2026. The additional funding being made available in 2026 will see the allocation for Core Funding in the next programme year (September 2026 – August 2027) increase to nearly €482 million. That is an additional €89 million on the current full year allocation, or an 23% increase.
This increased investment will facilitate:
• Natural capacity growth of 4.2% across the sector.
• Additional capacity growth created by the new Building Blocks grants.
• Support for providers in adhering to the fee management conditions including the continued fee freeze and reductions to the maximum fee caps in the 2026/2027 programme year.
• Support for improved pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners with implementation of new 2025 Employment Regulation Orders, with further increases in pay to be supported through enhancement in year 5 of the scheme.
Full details of Core Funding 2026/2027 will be made available to the sector in 2026, in advance of programme readiness for Year 5 of Core Funding.
In addition to this increased allocation, being in Core Funding unlocks additional supports for services to access, including access to enhanced support for services caring for concentrated numbers of children facing disadvantage through Equal Start and opportunities to apply for capital grants through the Department. 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 €84.05 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.
The ‘First 5’ whole-of-government strategy commits to the phased extension of AIM, a commitment that was reaffirmed by the findings of an independent end-of-year-three evaluation conducted by the University of Derby and published in January 2024. Participants in the evaluation, including providers, educators, and parents, strongly supported the scaling up of AIM. They also expressed a desire to see AIM extended to hours outside of the ECCE entitlement.
Based on the evaluation’s findings, AIM is now being extended on a phased basis as funding becomes available. Since September 2024, targeted AIM supports have been available to ECCE-eligible children outside of ECCE hours—both during term time and in holiday periods. Children can now access up to three additional hours per day during the ECCE term and up to six hours per day outside of term, through the National Childcare Scheme (NCS).
The Programme for Government commits to ‘examine and expand the Access and Inclusion Model and make it available to younger children.’ Work is underway to develop a tailored model to extend AIM to children under three years of age, ensuring it meets the specific needs of this younger cohort. This development work will be completed during 2026. Consideration will also be given, at a later stage, to extending AIM to children attending school-age childcare. It is critical that any extension of AIM supports to these different age cohorts is evidence-based and reflective of their needs. Shaping the Future the Early Years Action Plan Phase 1 Report will be published on 17th December 2025. It sets out the next steps in delivery of the key commitments in the Programme for Government to improve affordability, quality, and access.
Shaping the Future sets out Phase 1 actions, which will be carried out in 2026 using existing policy tools. Phase 2 actions will be published later in 2026, following completion of the public consultation process.
Actions on accessible, affordable and high-quality Early Learning and Care (ELC) are also being considered in the context of the development of the new First 5 Implementation Plan for 2026-2028. Childminders are a hugely important part of early learning and care and school-age childcare provision, and they continue to be the option of choice for many families. All paid, non-relative childminders who work in their own homes can now register with Tusla and access the National Childcare Scheme. The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 set out a pathway for the extension of registration to childminders who work in their own homes. A key objective of the National Action Plan for Childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to benefit from State subsidies through the National Childcare Scheme.
The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024 and the Childminding Services Regulations provide for a transition period of three years, before registration becomes mandatory. This phased approach aims to facilitate the largest possible number of childminders to enter the regulated sector, the sphere of quality assurance, and access to Government subsidies, while recognising the time and supports required for childminders to learn about and prepare for registration.
Supports are available for childminders at local level through the City and County Childcare Committees. Each City and County Childcare Committee employs a Childminding Development Officer, who provides a range of supports to local childminders, including a short pre-registration training course.
The Childminding Development Grant provides up to €1,000 to assist both registered and unregistered childminders who are providing a childminding service in their own homes. In 2025, the Department has paid €413,338 to childminders through the Childminding Development Grant. A further round of the Grant will open in early 2026.
While the Department has successfully completed Phase 1 of the National Action Plan, considerable work lies ahead during Phase 2 in supporting the large number of unregistered childminders to register with Tusla and take part in the National Childcare Scheme before the end of the transition period in 2027. A national communications strategy is a key element in Phase 2. Work on this communications strategy has begun, aiming to inform childminders and parents about the changes, supports available and what to expect. In addition, the Department has committed to undertake a review of the initial implementation of the Childminding-specific Regulations during the transition period. This review will commence in 2026.
Equal Start is a funding model and a set of associated universal and targeted measures to support access and meaningful participation in early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) for children and their families who experience disadvantage. Launched in May 2024, it is delivering on a key commitment in the First 5 strategy (2019-2028).
Achievements to date in 2025 include:
• The provision of additional supports to a total of 804 settings (serving 35,000 children - 4,700 from priority cohorts) identified as operating in a context of concentrated disadvantage, that can be used to support engagement between the settings and families, as well as other child and family support services. Funding also provides ELC and SAC to children with higher levels of need.
• All services in receipt of Equal Start Staffing Supports have benefitted from a 10 percent capitation increase from 13 October 2025. This matches the average increase in the minimum rates of pay provided for in the new Employment Regulation Orders.
• Rollout of ‘Bia Blasta’, a pre-school Nutrition Programme, which commenced on 1 October 2025 for Equal Start designated services providing the ECCE Programme.
• 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 ELC and SAC.
• Appointment of Traveller and Roma Advisory Specialists to work in Better Start to promote inclusive ELC and SAC.
• Roll-out of Early Talk Boost – an intervention for language delay - to settings with a priority designation.
• Development of guidance and supports to support services to participate in inter-agency cooperation such as Meitheal.
Achievements expected in 2026 include:
• The review of the current Inclusion Co-ordinator role and updating of the Leadership for INClusion (LINC) programme. A tender has been awarded for this action and work is underway.
• The review and update of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines and associated training. A tender has been awarded for this action and work is underway.
• The development of a new Family and Community Partnership Coordinator role with the associated training to be developed during 2026.
• The development of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Equal Start is underway, with the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework report due to be published in Q2 of 2026, to help ensure the effective evaluation of the model in the coming years.
A 2026 budget allocation of €594 million will support approximately 27,000 additional children to benefit from their Statutory entitlement to National Childcare Scheme subsidies to offset the cost of early learning and childcare, which since September 2024 now also includes subsidies for families using childminders. This represents an 11% increase in the numbers of children benefitting and a 12% increase, or approximately €65 million, on the 2025 allocation. The 2026 budget allocation for the NCS will also allow the Department to reduce early learning and childcare fees for tens of thousands of lower-income families. The lower and upper-income assessed thresholds will be increased from the current €26,000 to €60,000 range, along with an increase to the multiple child deduction (MCD) for parents with 2 or more children availing of the scheme.
The Department are planning to commence the remaining parts of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024 shortly. This will significantly enhance the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate’s ability to deal with non-compliance and will also put the regulatory ladder of enforcement on a statutory basis.
The Department recently finished a consultation on the development of comprehensive school age regulations. It is expected that these regulations will come into effect in the first half of 2026. These regulations will also provide the first set of combined centre-based regulations for the sector (both pre-school and school age services).
