2815. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of staff employed in the early learning and childcare sector in County Cork; the average pay rates by qualification level for Cork county; the estimated workforce shortfall in this sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55937/26]

The role of the early years educator and school-age childcare (SAC) practitioner are valuable ones, and they play an important part in supporting children's development, learning and care.

I acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and SAC services report staffing challenges in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, these challenges are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by turnover caused in general by low levels of pay.

Pay is one of a number of challenges impacting the ELC and SAC workforce. The level of pay for early years educators and SAC practitioners does not reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy.

Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages or conditions for any staff in the sector.

The Joint Labour Committee (JLC) is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders (EROs), and is independent in its functions.

Pay and conditions are improving. Through the work of the JLC and successive EROs, minimum pay rates have now risen three times in four years, delivering an average 15% increase in minimum rates of pay. This marks significant progress in professionalising the workforce. The latest EROs, which came into effect in October 2025, saw an increase in minimum pay rates of, on average, 10% and will increase pay for over 67% of staff in the sector.

Outcomes from the JLC process are supported by Government through Core Funding. In this programme year 2025/26, Core Funding has increased by 6% to approximately €350 million with an additional €45 million in ring-fenced Core Funding provided to support services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector.

For programme year 2026/2027, I recently announced that Core Funding will be increased by 23% to €480 million. An additional €45 million has also been ringfenced from September 2026 to support services in meeting the potential costs of increasing rates of pay, contingent upon new EROs being enacted following successful negotiations by the independent JLC.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government to continue to support EROs to attract and retain early years educators, I met with JLC representatives in April to outline the Government's continued support for the improvement of pay for educators and practitioners working in the sector and the JLC process.

The Department continues to support the JLC and the negotiation process by fulfilling data requests which it has received from the JLC members.

The following tables show the staff workforce and staff vacancies in Cork County only and do not include Cork City.

Estimated ELC/SAC workforce in Cork County

There are an estimated 2,550 educators and practitioners working with children in the ELC and SAC sector in Cork County. The average rates of pay by qualification level are as follows:

Currently there is no qualification required for SAC practitioners, who are included in the data presented above.

General data assumptions

Data are based on the Core Funding data pull 21 May 2026.

Data is self-reported by service providers.

Staff members’ highest role was chosen as the main role.

Staff whose rate of pay is entered below the previous ERO in the data pull are assigned a rate equal to the latest ERO.

Staff number estimates are extrapolated to the sector at 1/0.88.

Staff number estimates relate to a count of staff IDs. A staff member may have more than 1 staff ID but numbers of such cases are very low.

Exclusions

Data has been cleaned to remove or adjust for likely errors.

Services were excluded where service status was recorded as Closed, System Cancelled, Draft, New, Withdrawn or Declined in the data pull.

Services were excluded where service type was recorded as Childminder, Drop-In or Not found.

Staff Vacancies

Vacancies Data Notes:

The vacancies data is taken from responses to the 2024/25 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey, which had a national response rate of 87.5%.

Data is self-reported by service providers.

Figures for 2026 are not available as data collected through the 2025/26 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey is undergoing cleaning.

The number of vacancies at the time of the 2024/25 survey relates to staff working directly with children (both educators/practitioners and managerial staff) only.

A longer-term workforce strategy for the sector is in place: "Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for ELC and SAC, 2022-2028". Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in the sector.

One of the five "pillars" of Nurturing Skills comprises commitments aimed at supporting recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce, and it includes actions to raise the profile of careers in the sector.

In December 2023, a Sub-Group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum was established to address recruitment and retention challenges. The group has advanced initiatives including:

• A Student Fast-track Process for recognition of studies to work in service out of term,

• The assessment of unfinished qualifications, where people who may have started a relevant qualification but did not get to finish it, can have what they completed assessed for meeting qualification requirements

• An agreement to promote careers in the sector

Another action from the plan currently under development is a communications campaign which will include a series of videos and information packs aimed at promoting the ELC and SAC profession. The packs will be provided to career guidance counsellors and other key bodies who support individuals in making education and employment decisions, with the aim of raising awareness of career opportunities and pathways within the ELC and SAC sector.

The Department acknowledges the challenges faced by staff in relation to stress and well-being, with administrative burden often cited as a key factor to those pressures. To help support the welfare and wellness of the sector, a pilot employee assistance programme will commence shortly in five City and County Childcare Committee (CCC) areas. This pilot project is an action under Equal Start: A model to support access and participation in early learning and childcare for all children. Following evaluation of the pilot the EAP will be expanded across the sector.

To further support staff retention and increase the number of degree-level graduates in the sector, the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund was established to enable educators who continue to work within the sector to pursue Level 7 and 8 qualifications in support of the First 5 and subsequently Nurturing Skills objective of a 'graduate led' ELC workforce.

The Nurturing Skills Learner Fund assists in the financial costs for early years educators who wish to pursue ELC qualifications approved by the Qualifications Advisory Board at level 7 and level 8 while continuing to work in the sector, in a core funded service.

Nurturing Skills Learner Fund pays up to 90% of course fees excluding student levies. Over 550 early years educators have been offered financial support to upskill to Level 7 and Level 8 ELC qualifications for the academic year 2026/2027 beginning in Autumn 2026. Since its inception in 2024 the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund has offered financial support to over 1,250 early years educators.