Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 May 2026
742. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the average annual staff turnover rate of graduate lead educators working in Early Years services during the 2023/2024 programme year, on county-by-county basis, community /private employment and service size, in tabular form. [32142/26]
View answerThe role of the early years educator and school-age childcare practitioner are valuable ones, and they play an important part in supporting children's development, learning and care.
In a very competitive labour market and with low levels of unemployment, recruitment and retention is a challenge for all employers.
The current Annual Early Years Sector Profile data shows that the number of educators/practitioners working with children in the sector has increased by over 8% between 2024 and 2025 and has increased by over 33% since 2022 while the national average turnover rate has fallen by 1.3% to 24.%% in 2025.
However, it is acknowledged that many early learning and childcare services report recruitment and retention issues. In general, these challenges are not caused by insufficient supply of staff, but by high levels of turnover mainly due to low pay and conditions.
Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages or conditions.
The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders, and is independent in its functions. Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding. In this programme year 2025/26 Core Funding has increased by 6% to approximately €350 million with an additional €45 million in ring-fenced Core Funding provided to support early learning and care services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector.
I recently announced, as part of launch of Shaping the Future: Early Years Action Plan in December, another allocation of up to €15m of ring-fenced funding from September 2026, which amounts up to €45m for the full programme year, to support service providers with costs associated with possible increases in minimum rates of pay negotiated via the independent Joint Labour Committee process.
Consequently, over 2 years, the Department has made an allocation of €90 million available to support possible increased rates of pay.
The table herein shows the staff turnover rate by county based on responses to the Annual Early Years Sector Profile in 2023/24. The turnover data is not available specifically for Graduate Lead Educators only as the data is not collected at that granular level.
|
County Division |
Turnover rate: Overall |
Turnover rate: Community services |
Turnover rate: Private services |
Turnover rate: Small services |
Turnover rate: Medium services |
Turnover rate: Large services |
|
Carlow |
21.4% |
23.5% |
20.2% |
20.8% |
21.8% |
23.1% |
|
Cavan |
22.6% |
23.7% |
21.6% |
25.0% |
20.1% |
19.1% |
|
Clare |
22.4% |
21.7% |
22.6% |
23.3% |
22.2% |
8.2% |
|
Cork City |
29.3% |
18.9% |
33.7% |
26.2% |
35.1% |
32.1% |
|
Cork County |
27.4% |
16.2% |
31.1% |
28.5% |
25.7% |
20.8% |
|
Donegal |
20.7% |
16.3% |
24.5% |
18.6% |
26.6% |
17.3% |
|
Dublin - Dublin City |
35.5% |
22.0% |
42.0% |
34.1% |
37.6% |
39.4% |
|
Dublin - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown |
48.2% |
29.3% |
51.3% |
41.6% |
58.7% |
61.2% |
|
Dublin - Fingal |
27.8% |
22.8% |
28.2% |
23.0% |
33.1% |
43.8% |
|
Dublin - South Dublin |
29.2% |
16.7% |
32.0% |
26.7% |
31.4% |
36.2% |
|
Galway |
25.1% |
18.2% |
27.6% |
25.2% |
25.5% |
23.2% |
|
Kerry |
25.0% |
18.3% |
28.7% |
24.3% |
29.1% |
17.5% |
|
Kildare |
26.8% |
14.8% |
27.4% |
22.2% |
30.9% |
33.5% |
|
Kilkenny |
20.2% |
17.6% |
21.5% |
20.9% |
21.2% |
14.2% |
|
Laois |
15.5% |
17.4% |
15.0% |
15.9% |
14.1% |
19.9% |
|
Leitrim |
33.8% |
31.0% |
38.8% |
38.9% |
27.8% |
14.1% |
|
Limerick |
22.4% |
18.7% |
23.5% |
22.5% |
20.7% |
24.7% |
|
Longford |
15.1% |
17.2% |
13.4% |
15.0% |
12.8% |
22.4% |
|
Louth |
16.3% |
19.6% |
15.6% |
13.0% |
20.8% |
17.2% |
|
Mayo |
17.5% |
19.6% |
16.0% |
17.3% |
16.9% |
23.2% |
|
Meath |
21.1% |
17.9% |
21.4% |
18.7% |
24.4% |
25.2% |
|
Monaghan |
22.8% |
26.3% |
16.7% |
30.0% |
19.5% |
17.0% |
|
Offaly |
23.1% |
11.9% |
25.6% |
23.4% |
20.4% |
25.5% |
|
Roscommon |
17.5% |
15.7% |
18.8% |
15.0% |
20.1% |
25.6% |
|
Sligo |
27.9% |
26.3% |
28.8% |
27.0% |
28.7% |
31.4% |
|
Tipperary |
23.7% |
19.8% |
24.7% |
25.7% |
19.4% |
20.6% |
|
Waterford |
18.2% |
15.8% |
19.5% |
17.7% |
18.4% |
20.1% |
|
Westmeath |
15.3% |
11.9% |
16.6% |
11.9% |
18.0% |
27.6% |
|
Wexford |
19.9% |
12.5% |
22.7% |
19.1% |
21.5% |
18.3% |
|
Wicklow |
29.9% |
16.8% |
31.6% |
28.7% |
27.0% |
49.0% |
|
National |
25.8% |
19.3% |
28.0% |
24.8% |
27.4% |
27.8% |
Notes:
• The data is taken from responses to the 2023/24 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey which had a response rate of 87%.
• The turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of staff that left the service in the previous 12 months by the total number of staff and expressed as a percentage. If the sum of vacancies and staff that worked in a service less than one year is greater than the number of staff that left in the last 12 months, the number of staff who left the service in the last 12 months is substituted in this calculation by the number of staff that worked in the service for less than one year. This substitution is made to differentiate between staff turnover and expansion. The turnover rate is calculated only for staff working with children.
• Service size is assessed based on the number of unique children registered under at least one Department of Children Disability and Equality programme/scheme in a service on 1 June of 2024. A service with less than 50 children is classified as small, a service with 50–99 children is classified as medium and a service with a capacity of 100 or more children is classified as large.
