Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 7 September 2026
2822. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the position regarding developments towards reaching the commitment to reducing childcare costs to €200 per child, per month, in the context of a number of childcare providers leaving the core funding scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59677/26]
View answerThe Phase 1 report of Shaping the Future: the Early Years Action Plan was published in December 2025. The report sets out the next steps in the delivery of a number of Programme for Government commitments relating to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC).
A central objective of Shaping the Future is to reduce parental fees to an upper limit of €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government. The fee-freeze and maximum fee-caps required for Core Funding have been key to the progress in recent years in making ELC and SAC services more affordable. 2026 actions on affordability will include further reduction in some of the highest fees paid by parents by lowering the maximum fees that Core Funding Partner Services can charge.
In addition, from autumn 2026 out of pocket costs for lower-income families will be reduced through the National Childcare Scheme. These measures include:
- An increase to the lower (base) income threshold of the income-assessed subsidy from €26,000 to €34,000, to ensure that families with incomes below the relative income poverty line receive the maximum subsidies.
- An increase to the upper income threshold (income limit) of the income-assessed subsidy from €60,000 to €68,000, to extend income-assessed subsidies to more families.
- An increase to the multiple child deduction (MCD) component of the income-assessed subsidy for families with two children under the age of 15 from €4,300 to €5,500, and for families with three or more children under the age of 15 from €8,600 to €11,000.
Core Funding is a supply-side grant to ELC and SAC providers towards their operating costs. It is designed to promote affordability for parents and sustainability for providers through increased funding to the sector, paid on a consistent and equitable basis.
As Core Funding is an optional scheme, providers have the autonomy to withdraw from or choose not to participate in the scheme.
While 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.
Core Funding has enjoyed high participation from the sector since its launch in September 2022.
To deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to progressively reduce parental fees to €200 per month, the Phase 1 report of Shaping the Future states that Phase 2 will set out a roadmap 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.
