ECCE – The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme 

• • ECCE Funding Agreement_English_2025-26
  • ECCE Pre-Registration Form_English_2025-26
  • ECCE Minimum Numbers Exemption Form_English_2025-26
  • ECCE Payment Schedule_2025-26
  • ECCE Programme Rules_English_2025-26
  • ECCE Checklist

The ECCE programme is a universal programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks2 per year and the programme year runs from September to June.  There is an obligation on those in receipt of public funding to strictly adhere to all the rules contained in this entire document as set out by the Minister.

A service must be registered with Tusla to receive funding from DCDE. Services who provide both an ELC and an SAC service must be registered with Tusla for both services. All facilities/locations operated
by a service must be registered with Tusla, have an individual Service Reference number and children must attend the facility/ location in which they are registered. Proof of Tusla registration must be available on the premises for inspection if required.

• Service providers must be registered with Tusla for the places being provided:
• Full day-care places (more than 5 hours per day)
• Part-time places (between 3 hours 31 minutes and 5 hours per day)
• Sessional places (between 2 hours 16 minutes and 3 hours 30 minutes per day)
• Half-session places (between 1 hour and 2 hours 15 minutes per day)
  E.g. Services cannot be funded for part-time places when registered with Tusla as a sessional service. It is compulsory for all services providing childcare to register with Tusla.

Registrations for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme 2025/2026 will open on the Early Years Hive on Monday 7 July 2025.

The ECCE 2025/2026 programme will commence on Monday 25 August 2025. You can find guidance on how to register a child on ECCE on the ECCE Child Registration page under Resources on the Early Years Hive.  Important: If you are registering a child for ECCE 2025 who was registered in your service for ECCE 2024, please add an additional, separate registration for ECCE 2025 and do not delete the ECCE 2023 registration.

The programme rules for ECCE can be found below

• ECCE Programme Rules_English_2025-26

Once the above tasks are complete, you are now ready to activate the funding agreement for ECCE .The funding agreement is available on the Programmes page. You can find a guide and a training video on activating an ECCE funding agreement in the Help & Support section of the Hive here.

Child registration for ECCE  will be available from July on Hive.

Childcare services taking part in the ECCE scheme must provide an appropriate pre-school educational programme which adheres to the principles of Síolta and Aistear, the national frameworks for early years care and education.  To download a copy of the compliance guide and checklist please click below:

An ELC Service provider must have a minimum enrolment number of eight ECCE-eligible children per session.

ECCE pre-registration form

• ECCE Minimum Numbers Exemption Form_English_2025-26

ECCE is administered on the Early Years Hive portal and all Programme Readiness tasks must be completed on the Hive. Please see the below guides available in the Help & Support section of the Hive for guidance:

• ECCE programme readiness tasks
• Adding an ECCE service calendar
• Adding an ECCE fees list

Once you complete the above tasks, you are now ready to activate the funding agreement for ECCE .The funding agreement is available under the Programmes tab. You can find a guide and a training video on activating an ECCE funding agreement in the Help & Support section of the Hive here.

Service Providers must be on-boarded on the Hive in order to complete these readiness tasks. If you are new to Hive and looking to on-board your service, please see the on-boarding page of Hive for more information.

Registering a child on the ECCE

Parents must complete an ECCE Pre Registration Form

The Childcare Service must provide the parent with a Fee Policy and Calendar.

Useful Downloads for the ECCE Scheme

ECCE agreement

Attendance exemption forms

Force majeure 

Force Majeure may apply where a service is hindered or prevented from fulfilling its contractual
obligations by circumstances not within its reasonable ability to control. This does not include any
preplanned works or events or staff unavailability. A condition of all Force Majeure applications is
that staff wages are continued to be paid.

• Force Majeure Application Form
• Force Majeure Guidelines