Richard Bruton
Question:1339. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if consideration will be given to linking the Core Funding payment to inflation. [56703/23]
View answerWednesday, 17 January 2024
Questions (1339)
Written answers
Investment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding exceeding €1.1 billion in 2024 for early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector.
Core Funding makes a significant additional contribution to services’ income, allowing them to better absorb increased costs including energy costs. In Year 1 of Core Funding, 99% of services saw their income increase through Core Funding with 1%, or close to 60 services, receiving top up payments to ensure their income did not decrease for the same level of provision offered.
All services will have seen further increases to their Core Funding allocations from the second year due to the increased allocations towards non-staff overheads and administrative staff/time. In addition, a number of targeted supports for small and sessional services were introduced in Year 2 of the scheme in order to improve sustainability of these services, specifically a flat rate top up of €4,075 for sessional-only services and a minimum base rate allocation of €8,150. These measures saw the average allocation under Core Funding for sessional-only service increase by 30% this year.
In a continued commitment to supporting these services, these targeted measures will continue to apply in the 2024/2025 programme year.
In addition, as announced in Budget 2024, the allocation for Year 3 of the Scheme (from September 2024-August 2025) will increase by €44m or 15%, to €331m. This will support the delivery of a range of enhancements in Year 3 of the scheme to support improved affordability and accessibility for families, improved pay and conditions for the workforce and continued improvement in sustainability for providers.
To note, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Ireland's official measure of inflation, dropped steadily over the course of 2023 from a high of 8.5% in February 2023 to 3.9% in November 2023, which is the latest month for which data is available.
However, as a further measure, sustainability supports will continue to be available in 2024, and can be accessed through local City and County Childcare Committees (CCC). Once a service engages with their local CCC they will be able to avail of supports through the case management process.
Through this process, local CCC and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to ELC and SAC services experiencing difficulties. This support can take the form of general operational supports as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to the individual circumstances of a service. In some instances, financial supports may be deemed appropriate in tandem with the case management process.
Financial supports, which may also be accessed through the case management process, are available to all Core Funding Partner Services, both community and private, who are experiencing financial difficulty, following a financial assessment by Pobal.
I would strongly encourage any service who would like to avail of advice or supports on a concern regarding their sustainability, to reach out to their local CCC. Contact details for their local CCC can be found at www.myccc.ie.