Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 December 2025
286. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality when the fee increase and assessment process will be open for application for eligible childcare providers and partner services who are in the core funding scheme in Louth and elsewhere; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [70640/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government is committed to ensuring access to affordable, quality early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC), and has demonstrated this commitment through an investment of €1.48bn in the 2026 budget.
One of the primary vehicles for the delivery of this investment is Core Funding, the supply-side payment to support the operating costs of services in the early learning and care sector. A service’s Core Funding grant is designed to support the costs of:
• Staff pay and conditions, including contact and non-contact time, holiday pay, sick pay and other employer costs
• Administrative staff/time
• Non-staff overhead costs
For the 2025/2026 programme year, €45 million has been ringfenced to support employers in meeting the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay for staff across the sector.
An allocation of €405 million for the Scheme was secured in Budget 2026. This is an increase of €52 million on the 2025 allocation of €353 million – representing a 15% year-on-year increase and a 56% increase over the initial 2022 allocation of €259 million.
In addition, €20.6 million in brand new funding for a full programme year has been secured to support providers in adhering to the Scheme’s fee management conditions including reductions in the maximum fee caps in the 2026/2027 programme year. This will guarantee that Core Funding’s monetary protections will continue to be passed on to families while ensuring sustainability and stability for the sector.
Department has also made changes to improve the sustainability of providers through, for example, targeted measures for small and sessional services, and a fee increase assessment process for services with fees frozen at unsustainably low rates last year.
The 2025/2026 Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement includes provisions for the undertaking of a further Fee Increase Assessment-type exercise, which will seek to support the ongoing viability of services where fees are particularly low.
The details of this undertaking are being developed by the Department and as part of this development, every effort will be made to carefully manage the potential out-of-pocket expenses to families occasioned by this policy.
It should be noted that, as with 2024/2025 Fee Increase Assessment, the new exercise will be designed to identify and support those services whose fees may have been frozen at a very low level. The details of the 2025/2026 fee increase process will be communicated to the sector once finalised.
Partner Services facing sustainability concerns can also avail of supports through the Department’s established case management process, through which local City and County Childcare Committees and Pobal work together to assess and provide support including financial support to services experiencing difficulties.
All services are encouraged to avail of these supports if they are facing difficulties with the sustainability of their business. Contact details for the CCCs can be found at the City and County Childcare Committees page on gov.ie.
