Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2026
116. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if a provider withdraws from core funding, if they can remain in other schemes, such as the national childcare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13074/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraRegardless of whether a service is participating in Core Funding, the National Childcare Scheme, the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Saver programme remain available to parents for the current programme year.
The ECCE Programme, which provides two years of pre-school without charge, enjoys participation rates of 96%. Over 70% of families on low-income report that they would not be able to send their child to pre-school without this Programme.
The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) complements the ECCE Programme, providing subsidies – both universal and targeted - to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in early learning and childcare.
The NCS has undergone a number of enhancements in recent years to further improve affordability for parents. These include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15 and two increases to the minimum hourly subsidy, which is now worth a minimum of €96.30 per week for 45 hours. The NCS increases since 2022 are there to benefit all families using registered childcare.
As Core Funding is an optional scheme, service providers have the autonomy and business freedom to withdraw from Core Funding, even though this will result in the loss of the significant financial support it offers them and the substantial benefits and certainty it brings to families.
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.
Core Funding operates alongside NCS, ECCE, AIM, Equal Start, and the CCSP Saver Programme and is in addition to income from these funding streams and any income received in parental fees.
The 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 and approval process for services with fees frozen at unsustainably low rates. There are also wider financial supports from the Department for services experiencing financial difficulty.
I encourage all services to avail of these supports as an alternative to withdrawing from Core Funding and removing the benefit of Core Funding to children and their families.
If a Partner Services wishes to withdraw from the Core Funding scheme, they must provide 3 months’ notice to the Scheme Administrator. This must be done by submitting a Service Request on the Early Years Hive outlining the withdrawal date and the reason for the withdrawal.
Core Funding remains open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the Scheme.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs are encouraged to contact their local City/County Childcare Committee for assistance.
