207. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the maximum childcare fee caps recently announced by her Department for parents with one child in full time five-day care, current monthly fee €1350 less NCS €385.20 applicable to parents from next September whose children attend a school (details supplied); the amount by which the fees will reduce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44610/26]

Core Funding is a supply-side grant to providers designed to support quality, sustainability, and enhanced public management, with associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency, incorporating funding for administration and to support the employment of graduate staff.

The Department is fully committed to promoting affordability for parents and viability for businesses, with the State providing significant investment into the early learning and childcare sector through Core Funding to support services in providing this important public good.

Additional funding secured in Budget 2026 will see the allocation for Core Funding in the next programme year from September 2026 increase to over €480 million. This represents an increase of over €90 million, or 23%, on the current full year allocation of €390 million.

Adherence to the Core Funding fee management system is a primary condition of receiving the significant State funding that is available through the Scheme. The fee management system requires compliance with a fee freeze and the maximum fee caps.

Maximum fee caps were first introduced for new entrants to the Scheme in September 2024. They were then lowered and extended to all Partner Services in September 2025. Recently, it was announced that the maximum fee caps will be reduced further for Core Funding programme year 2026/2027, beginning September 2026.

These latest maximum fee caps on all Partner Services will place a limit on the maximum fees that can be charged across all types of provision. The fee for a full day place–of between 40 and less than 50 hours per week, the most common full day care operating hours–will be no more than €280 per week (before State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the ECCE programme are deducted), with a maximum fee of €336 for 50 hours of care or more.

This means that a parent currently paying the maximum fee of €354 for 50 hours of care or more per week will see their weekly costs reduce by €18, in line with the reduction in the maximum fee for that level of care, to €336 from September. If this parent is availing of the full National Childcare Scheme subsidy entitlement, their maximum out-of-pocket weekly costs will not exceed €239.70.

It should be noted that the provider in question lists a weekly fee of €311.54, which will not exceed €215.24 after the application of the maximum NCS universal subsidy. Where the monthly fee is calculated as €1350, the total NCS universal subsidy available would amount to €417.30, meaning that parents availing of their full NCS entitlement would not pay more than €932.70 per month in out-of-pocket costs.

The new maximum fee caps represent the latest milestone in the progressive development of the Core Funding fee management system, and will reduce the highest fees at all levels of provision in the early learning and childcare sector.

Just under 90% of Partner Services already charge far less than the maximum fee caps and will therefore be unaffected. The majority of these services remain bound by the fee freeze, wherein they cannot increase their fees beyond the levels charged in September 2021.