Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2026
506. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her attention has been drawn to the withdrawal of a childcare centre from the core funding scheme (details supplied) and what actions her Department has taken to engage with the management of this facility to try and maintain their membership of the scheme. [70028/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am aware that Discoveries Creche in Shankill regrettably elected to withdraw from the Core Funding scheme in the 2023/2024 programme year.
The Department, through the local Childcare Committees (CCCs), engages directly with any such service to highlight the benefits of staying in Core Funding, not only for their service but also for the families who avail of them.
As Core Funding is an optional scheme, providers have the autonomy to withdraw from or choose not to participate in the scheme.
Under the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement, Partner Services must comply with the rules of the Core Funding scheme, such as the associated fee management measures and minimum notice periods. In line with the Core Funding Partner Service Agreement, services considering withdrawing from the scheme during a programme year must give 3 months’ notice of their intention to withdraw to the scheme administrator, and 3 months’ written notice to parents/guardians. 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 year 1 to over €482 million in year 5). This represents an increase of over 86% in Core Funding in four years.
In addition to the year-on-year increases, the Department has 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.
This seeks to strike a balance between the protection of affordability for parents and the interests of services, refining eligibility criteria to target particularly vulnerable services around the country where fees have been frozen at low levels since at least 2021. Any sanctioned fee increases will be implemented after September 2026.
This targeted approach on low fees was implemented as a complementary support to the significant funding increases secured for Core Funding for year 5.
There are also wider financial supports available where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability. These supports can be accessed through the Department’s case management process, which can be accessed while remaining in Core Funding.
All services have been encouraged 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.
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 should be noted that uptake of Core Funding remains strong. The fifth year of Core Funding began on 1 September 2026 and as of 1 October, 92% of all eligible providers have signed up to the scheme, which equates to over 4,600 services.
I am encouraged by this rate of participation: it shows that Core Funding is working as intended, and the vast majority of families will continue to benefit from the scheme’s fee management conditions.
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.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee for assistance. For information, the Department has a list of all Core Funding Partner Services which is updated regularly on the Departments website under How to Find a Partner Service:
www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/publications/how-to-find-a-partner-service/.
