Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2026
49. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to detail the actions that will be taken to entice childcare providers who have exited core funding back into core funding; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47286/26]
View answerWhile the State cannot mandate providers to participate in the scheme, Core Funding has been designed with maximum participation of providers in mind as reflected in the year-on-year growth of investment in the Scheme (rising from €259 million in 2022 to over €390 million in 2025). This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years.
I was delighted to announce further investment in Core Funding in Budget 2026. The additional funding being made available will see the allocation for Core Funding in the next programme year, which begins in September 2026, increase to over €480 million. That is an increase of over €90 million, or 23%, on the current full year allocation.
I have shared the details of the upcoming programme year with the sector. They include an investment of €21.4 million in brand new funding to support providers in adhering to Core Funding fee management conditions. All early learning and childcare services will see an increase to their Core Funding through an enhanced Base Rate.
A new strand of the Core Funding scheme, has also been developed to distribute up to €45 million in full-year funding to the sector in Year 5, to support Core Funding Partner Services to meet the costs of increasing rates of pay when new Employment Regulation Orders are negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee. In effect, I have secured and ringfenced a total of €90 million in the last two budgets, specifically to support pay and conditions in the sector.
In addition to this increased allocation, participation 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. In addition to this funding, there are wider financial supports available where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability that are only accessible to services in Core Funding.
Core Funding has enjoyed high participation from the sector since its launch in September 2022. As of 15 June, there were 4,647 services signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding which represents 93% uptake by eligible services. These are the highest numbers of Partner Services in Core Funding at any point since the scheme was launched in 2022.
I am encouraged by this rate of participation: it shows that the vast majority of families continue to benefit from the scheme’s fee management conditions.
The Department is always exploring the potential for further changes to enhance Core Funding. Any changes for future programme years would be based on the operation of year 5 of the Scheme starting in September as well as stakeholder input.
Moreover, the Phase 1 report of Shaping the Future states that a roadmap will be set out in Phase 2 to ensure that all publicly funded providers are supported to take part in Core Funding. As noted in the Phase 1 report, this will include measures to reduce the administrative burden for providers of participating in publicly funded schemes.
Phase 2 of Shaping the Future is in development and will be published by year end.
