2936. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children attending core funding services, by year, from 2022 to date in 2026, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61693/26]

Core Funding is a supply-side funding scheme, with the majority of funding distributed to services via the base rate. This is based on a service’s staffed capacity, that is, the number of staff, the operating hours, opening weeks and the age group of children for whom services are provided, as well as the number of places available. The scheme also pays graduate premiums for services with graduate lead educators, or graduate managers.

Core Funding is paid regardless of whether the place is filled or not filled. The Core Funding model is based on staffed capacity meaning the number of children the service can accommodate according to the services staffing levels; it does not matter whether the places offered are subsequently occupied or vacant. However, a minimum of one child must be registered for each hour of each staffed session in their service. The number of children the staff can accommodate must satisfy the minimum staff to child ratios as set in the Regulations.

Where the place is filled, the allocation towards a fulltime place is on top of the fee charged for that place by the service (which is met by a combination of State subsidies and parental contributions). The elements of Core Funding for graduate lead educators and managers and the share of the new ringfenced funding for staff pay is also additional income to the services.

The table below provides information for each programme year, the maximum number of ELC and SAC places reported by all eligible services at any one point in time was used to calculate an overall capacity figure. This represents the number of children that services reported they could accommodate at the time the data was collected. The 2025/2026 figure reflects the position as of August 2026.