Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 May 2026
217. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department has considered the cost of increasing the number of graduate lead educators working per room at a time under the core funding rules, as set out under Together for Better. [37989/26]
View answerIn programme year 4 of Core Funding, the cost of supporting the Graduate Lead Educator Premium is anticipated to amount to c. €47.5 million – which accounts for almost 12% of the overall year 4 Core Funding allocation.
The Graduate Lead Educator Premium, which pays out a rate of €4.44 per graduate-led hour, supports the employment of graduate staff. The Graduate Lead Educator premium is paid for every hour that an Early Learning and Care (ELC) or combined ELC/School Age Childcare (SAC) session is led by a graduate Lead Educator.
Under the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement, the Graduate Lead Educator Premium is payable only once at any one time within a given room, even though multiple Graduate Lead Educators can be assigned to a single room at any one time. To amend this policy would require a complete reassessment of the entire Core Funding model and at this juncture, this is not envisaged.
The current policy is in alignment with the Expert Group’s recommendations outlined in the report Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, which informed the development of the Together for Better funding model. Core Funding incorporated funding to support the employment of graduate staff, replacing the ECCE Higher Capitation payment which had diverted graduates away from non-ECCE provision, despite the importance of high-quality provision for children under the age of 3. Therefore, it is important that funding incentivises providers to spread their graduate lead educator staff across multiple rooms in their ELC service, rather than confining graduate led provision to one particular room or age cohort.
