There have been many excellent advances in the provision of childcare services in the country under the current Government, but there is one glaring omission, and that is in the area of early childhood care and education, ECCE, services. When the scheme was first introduced in 2010, the capitation rate introduced was €64.50 per child. If that had kept pace with inflation, it would now stand at €76, but it does not. It stands at €69. That is putting incredible pressure on those services that provide ECCE services alone, and there are hundreds of them across the country. Unfortunately, however, 80 of them have closed already this year because they are ECCE-only providers and do not have the opportunity of cross-subsidising the ECCE service from the other services that many other larger providers provide. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister to look at this again. It urgently needs to be reassessed. The very viability of ECCE-only services is under threat.

There needs to be a meeting of the ways here because the new funding model in operation since September offers ECCE providers public funding of at least an additional €9.75 per child per week. That is 40% more than the €7 increase in capitation sought by the federation. The change in the funding model increases investment in session and pre-school services from approximately €14 million per year last year to €27 million per year on top of standard capitation, an almost 90% increase. Under core funding, therefore, the overwhelming majority of services will see an increase in their funding. Most will see very substantial increases and no service will see a decrease in funding if its circumstances remain the same. Services without a graduate lead educator will see capitation increase by €9.5 million. There may be a number of services for which this poses a difficulty. I suggest that the Minister engages with those services and see if we can get something resolved.