Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 November 2023
471. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in view of the withdrawal of a crèche (details supplied) in Firhouse from the core funding scheme and resultant significant increases in fees for parents, the action he intends to take to ensure that affordable childcare is available in the area. [51880/23]
View answerInvestment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding for the first time reaching more than €1 billion in 2023 for early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector.
Core Funding is in operation since 15 September 2022 and has achieved very significant success in terms of the high levels of participation. With 95% participation in year 1 and to date, 94% or over 4,300 providers have signed up for Core Funding Year 2, with applications still open. There are officially more services contracted for Core Funding year 2 than there were at the peak of Core Funding year 1.
However, Early learning and care (ELC) and school aged childcare (SAC) services are provided by private enterprises, either privately owned or operated by community organisations. While service providers are contracted by the Department to provide childcare services at subsidised rates to parents, as private entities, it is at their discretion which childcare programmes they offer within their facilities.
While my Department cannot mandate providers to participate in schemes, every effort has been made to carefully design the schemes to meet the policy objectives, including achieving high levels of participation by ensuring that the schemes are attractive to providers.
The Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement lays out the key conditions of the scheme. The Funding Agreement states that Partner Services must provide 3 months’ notice before terminating the funding agreement. The exact clause of the Funding Agreement states the following: "Except as provided by the provisions of sub-clause 9.2, this Agreement may be terminated by either party by serving 3 months’ written notice to the other party."
It is a matter for providers to decide whether they wish to benefit from this public funding or withdraw from the Scheme and remove the benefits of the Core Funding to parents, in particular the Core Funding Fee Freeze.
The Deputy may also be aware that the network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country are in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion, particularly where there is unmet need.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie
While the service may be opting to leave Core Funding, it can still separately contract into schemes such as the National Childcare Scheme and ECCE. If the service chooses to offer the NCS, parents will be able to avail of a minimum of 1.40 an hour up to 45 hours a week, which will increase from next September to a minimum of 2.14 an hour. Increases in the NCS across the last two budgets will significantly reduce the cost of early learning and childcare for parents. From September 2024, parents availing of 45 hours a week care will be able to avail of a subsidy worth just over five thousand euro a year which will help considerably to off-set these costs. This subsidy may be higher depending on the circumstances of the family.
In addition, and as part of the design of the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Scheme, officials in my Department, in conjunction with Pobal, have commenced a needs analysis in the Early Learning and Childcare sector. This analysis will look at undersupply by region and age category, which will ensure that my Department can fund additional capacity where it is most needed. I hope to announce details of the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Scheme in the coming weeks.
