Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 May 2026
761. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has conducted or commissioned any comparative cost analysis between private and public childcare placements since 2020; if so, to provide details and findings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32435/26]
View answerCrowe was commissioned by the then Department of Children and Youth Affairs to undertake an independent review on the cost of providing quality early learning and childcare in Ireland in 2018. The brief for the Review included:
• analysing the current costs of providing early learning and childcare and the factors that impact on these costs;
• the development and delivery of a model of the unit costs of providing early learning and childcare that allows analysis of policy changes and variation in cost-drivers, including the potential impact of professionalisation; and
• providing an objective, high-level market analysis of the early learning and childcare sector in Ireland, including analysis of fee levels charged to parents.
The final report, Independent Review of the Cost of Providing Quality Early Learning and Childcare Services in Ireland, was published in October 2020.
In the report, the average hourly unit cost for delivering early learning and childcare across all services was €4.14. This average hourly unit cost varied across service type and geographic, though differences across for profit and not for profit services was not reported on.
The broad components of early learning and childcare services’ operating costs were also identified through the Review. This suggested a pattern consistent with those found in other countries, with staff costs accounting for almost 70 percent of the overall operating costs.
One of the recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, published in December 2021 was that providers who sign up to Core Funding should be required to ‘provide transparent financial reports and participate as required in cost surveys and other necessary data-collection exercises’.
In line with this recommendation, a key condition of receiving Core Funding is financial reporting by Partner Services. For the first two years of the scheme, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, services were required to submit an income and expenditure report via a registered accountant. From programme year 2024/2025 onwards, reporting requirements have been enhanced through replacing the income and expenditure report with a full trial balance completed on an accruals basis
Trial balances are currently being returned from Partner Services in Core Funding in respect of year 3 of the scheme (September 2024-August 2025).
