Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 October 2025
503. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of early years and crèche services that have been withdrawn from the core funding scheme in each of the past five years, by county; and the specific measures her Department is taking to prevent further withdrawals and protect parents from fee increases. [52979/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraCore Funding began in September 2022 and therefore figures are only available for the past three years.
In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, I have defined a service that left Core Funding as any service that had a gap between contracts for Core Funding of 4 or more weeks. There are a number of reasons that a service might fall into this definition, for example a service could have withdrawn from the scheme, been removed from the scheme for breach or rules, or experienced a delay in re-contracting following a change of circumstance application or between programme years. Many services have left and later re-joined the scheme. There may be a small number of services who left the scheme and subsequently closed at a later date and are not captured in the figures below.
As of 5 August 2025, there were 4,807 services listed as being open on the Early Years Platform, of which 141 (3%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years and continue to operate outside of this scheme. A further 336 services (7%) had left Core Funding at one point over the past 3 years but later rejoined and are currently signed up to the third year of the scheme. The overwhelming majority of services, 4,056 or 84%, have continued to participate in Core Funding from the date on which they first signed up for the scheme.
The fourth year of Core Funding began on 1 September 2025 and as of 2 October, 4,424 services have signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding, an uptake rate of 91%. This is more than 200 additional services signed up than at this point in time last year. Every year there are a number of services who sign up to Core Funding in the weeks following the commencement of the programme year. Officials in the Department will be working to update these figures, reflecting an accurate assessment regarding participation in the fourth year of the scheme.
The tables below provide a breakdown of the services that left Core Funding in each programme year by county division, divided into services that left a programme year and were participating in the scheme as of 5 August 2025 and services that left a programme year and were not participating as of 5 August 2025. Some services may have left and rejoined multiple times across the three years, and therefore the figures cannot be summed across programme years from the breakdown below.
|
County division |
Left Year 1 (2022/2023) - participating on 5 August 2025 |
Left Year 1 (2022/2023) - not participating on 5 August 2025 |
Left Year 2 (2023/2024) - participating on 5 August 2025 |
Left Year 2 (2023/2024) - not participating on 5 August 2025 |
Left Year 3 (2024/2025) – participating on 5 August 2025 |
Left Year 3 (2024/2025) - not participating on 5 August 2025 |
|
County Cork |
12 |
1 |
10 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
|
County Clare |
5 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
County Cavan |
3 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Carlow |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Cork City |
2 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
|
County Donegal |
12 |
1 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown |
6 |
3 |
2 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
|
South Dublin |
6 |
4 |
12 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
|
Dublin City |
13 |
2 |
35 |
21 |
2 |
4 |
|
Fingal |
6 |
2 |
14 |
15 |
1 |
0 |
|
County Galway |
22 |
3 |
16 |
16 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Kildare |
10 |
1 |
7 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Kilkenny |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Kerry |
4 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Longford |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Louth |
5 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Limerick |
5 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
County Leitrim |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Laois |
4 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Meath |
4 |
0 |
9 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Monaghan |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
County Mayo |
5 |
3 |
9 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Offaly |
7 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Roscommon |
1 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Sligo |
0 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Tipperary |
10 |
1 |
11 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
County Waterford |
6 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Westmeath |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
County Wicklow |
3 |
1 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
County Wexford |
3 |
1 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
159 |
24 |
187 |
116 |
10 |
9 |
I am aware that between 5 and 31 August 2025, two additional services reached the end of their notice period and withdrew from Core Funding Year 3 – one in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and one in Kildare.
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 year 1 to over €390 million in year 4). This represents an increase of over 50% in Core Funding in three years.
The 2025/2026 allocation represents an increase of over €60 million (over 18%) on the previous programme year, which will facilitate:
• Support for providers in meeting the costs of increases in minimum pay rates as a result of newly negotiated Employment Regulation Orders by the independent Joint Labour Committee;
• Increased funding for early learning and care capacity offered to ensure Partner Services can keep pace with rising costs without needing to increase fees charged to parents;
• An increase to the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive, increasing to €14,400 per year from the current level of €14,000;
• A reduction in the maximum allocation for a service’s capacity to €450,000 to best spread a limited budget across the entire sector; and
• Funding to support capacity growth of 3.5% across the sector.
In addition to this increased allocation, being in Core Funding unlocks additional supports for services to access, including:
• access to wider financial supports where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability;
• 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.
Moreover, the annual changes to the allocation model and in the conditions attached to the funding has ensured the Scheme remains responsive, balancing the needs of providers while seeking also to meet a range of other objectives. Among these objectives is ensuring taxpayers’ money is being used in a way that sustains services while not unreasonably increasing their private profit.
Participation in Core Funding is optional, but it remains open to all Tulsa registered providers, subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the Core Funding Agreement. It is a matter for providers to decide whether they wish to sign up to Core Funding and benefit from the significant financial supports it offers to providers and the certainty it gives to parents through the associated fee management measures.
Core Funding remains open, and these withdrawn services may reapply during the year and as can be seen above more services have returned than have not returned.
The Department is always exploring the potential for further changes to enhance Core Funding. Any changes for Year 5 – starting in September 2026 – would be based on the operation of year 4 of the Scheme starting last month as well as stakeholder input. The Department will continue to engage with the sector and continue to develop the scheme so that it can continue to see the high uptake levels it has seen this year, and indeed since it was launched in 2022.
