Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
326. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated number of childcare services that have signed core funding contracts; the total number who signed up for core funding and subsequently withdrew; the years they withdrew; and the estimated number of children that are not covered by NCS, in tabular form. [3433/24]
View answerCore 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 of eligible services 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.
Core Funding year 1 had 4274 contracted services in Core Funding. 1 service withdrew from Core Funding in year 1, however that service has an activated contract in Core Funding year 2.
To date, 4374 services have contracted to Core Funding year 2. 3 services withdrew from year 2.
Participation in Core Funding is optional but it remains open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding.
Budget 2024 allocated additional funding for Core Funding. This increase on the 2023 allocation will support continued implementation of the scheme for the second programme year (September 2023 to August 2024) and into the third programme year from September 2024. In year 3 of the scheme, the value of Core Funding will increase by 15% or €44m to €331m.
Special supports are available from my Department where a service is experiencing financial difficulty or has concerns about their viability, accessed through local City or County Childcare Committee (CCC). This support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.
I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports.
My Department and Pobal, the Scheme Administrator only hold individual information on children registered for early learning and childcare subsidy schemes (mainly NCS and ECCE). Neither DCEDIY or Pobal hold information on children who are not registered for NCS or ECCE, or who avail of a service not offering NCS or ECCE.
In addition, it should be noted that whilst some services only provide ECCE, most full-day services also provide ECCE only options. It would be not be possible from available data to differentiate between parents opting to only use ECCE hours and parents who pay entirely privately for extra hours.
