Roderic O’Gorman Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth today
announced that over 90% of early learning and childcare services have applied for the third
year of Core Funding to date.
For the third year of operation, Core Funding has increased by 15% to €331 million to
ensure the benefits of Core Funding will continue to be felt by children and their families
and services across the full programme year.
The 90% uptake rate is in line with previous years of Core Funding, and services can sign up
to Year 3 of the scheme at any time over the course of the programme year (September
2024-August 2025).
This year the scheme will continue to support increases to capacity and accessibility for
parents whilst also ensuring improved quality and sustainability of Partner Services. Some of
the new developments to the scheme in year 3 include higher payments to all providers and
an increase in flat rate and minimum payment, benefitting smaller and sessional-only
services.
In addition, there are changes to the fee management process. Up to now, services availing
of Core Funding have not been allowed to raise their fees above what was charged to
parents on 30 September 2021 (or at the point of first signing up for Core Funding if the
service did not exist on 30 September 2021).
The fee freeze will remain in place for the majority of these services for year 3 of Core
Funding, though there are two new developments.
Firstly, services whose fees have been frozen at a level that may not be sufficient to sustain
their business will have the opportunity to apply for a fee increase. Secondly, a cap on fees
will be introduced for services joining Core Funding for the first time in the third year. This
will subsequently be extended to all services from September 2025.
Minister O’Gorman said:
“It is extremely encouraging that over 90% of services have chosen to come into partnership
with the State by applying for the third year of Core Funding, and this number continues to
grow.
“My Department and I will continue to engage across the sector to ensure the interests of
children, their families as well as educators and practitioners are promoted, while at the
same time ensuring continued sustainability for providers and supporting expanded
capacity.”
More information on Core Funding, including a list of Partner Services, is available on the
website, along with Core Funding allocations for year 1, with the Core Funding allocations
for year 2 to be published in the coming weeks
See full Press Release here: Minister O’Gorman welcomes strong commitment
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