Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2024
547. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in view of the withdrawal of a crèche (details supplied) in Ballycullen 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. [6578/24]
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 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 makes a significant additional contribution to services’ income, allowing them to better absorb increased costs. In Year 1 of Core Funding, some €259 million was allocated under the scheme and 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.
For the second year of operation, Core Funding increased by €28 million or 11% to €287 million allowing for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector, related both to pay and non-pay costs.
Arising from Budget 2024, the Core Funding allocation for year 3 of the scheme will increase by 15% - to €331 million. 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 improved sustainability for providers.
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.
I do not want any services to be faced with financial sustainability issues and I am fully committed to working with any such service to support them in delivering early learning and childcare for the public good. There are supports, financial and otherwise, available to services who need them.
In addition to Core Funding, Sustainability funding is available to services participating in Core Funding that are experiencing financial difficulty. Services experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support are encouraged to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports. Services can be assisted on an individual basis through this route.
Services are encouraged to avail of these supports as an alternative to not participating in Core Funding and removing the benefits of Core Funding to parents.
Services not participating in Core Funding can, in this programme year, separately offer the NCS and the ECCE programme.
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 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 offset the cost of early learning and childcare. This subsidy may be higher depending on the circumstances of the family.
