2939. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the amount of funding ring-fenced to help attract and retain early years educators in services signed up to core funding between 2020 to date in 2026, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61729/26]

I secured significant additional investment in Core Funding in Budget 2026, increasing the allocation for Core Funding in the programme year from September 2026 to over €480 million. This represents an increase of over €90 million, or 23%, on the current full year allocation.

This increased investment will allow for further increases in capacity across the sector, with €21.4 million specifically set aside to support Partner Services in adhering to Core Funding fee management conditions, including reductions in the maximum fee caps, from September 2026. This will guarantee that Core Funding’s monetary protections will continue to be passed on to families while ensuring sustainability and stability for the sector.

The increased allocation also includes up to a maximum of €45 million to support providers meet the cost of possible increase minimum rates of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners through enhancement of the Employment Regulation Orders. Consequently, over 2 years, the Department has ringfenced €90 million in funding for the support of improved pay and conditions.

The majority of Core Funding is distributed to services via the Base Rate, which is calculated on the basis of a service’s staffed capacity – the opening hours, operating weeks, the age group for whom services are provided, and the number of places available. The Base Rate calculation also accounts for the increases to the cost of delivering services encountered by providers. The Base Rate for Year 5 was also adjusted upwards to take into account the €21.4 million in additional fee management funding secured in Budget 2026.

The base rates in Core Funding have been developed using the various components associated with the cost of delivery of service provision such as: staff pay and conditions (including contact and non-contact time, holiday pay, sick pay and other employer costs such as pension contributions); administrative staff/time, and non-staff overhead costs. These components have been factored into the calculation of the budget for Core Funding since the scheme began in 2022.

Although the cost of delivery components such as improvements to staff pay have been used to derive the base rates, the eligible areas of expenditure of the Core Funding grant are much broader.

Since the Scheme was introduced, its effectiveness has been subject to ongoing assessment, which has facilitated the iterative evolution of this scheme.

In addition to the year-on-year increases, the Department has made changes to improve the sustainability of providers through, for example, targeted measures for small and sessional services and a fee increase assessment and approval process for services with fees frozen at unsustainably low rates.

Prior to 2025 support for pay costs were incorporated in the base rate of Core funding. In 2025 the Staff Funding Additional Contribution (SFAC) was developed to distribute the first ringfenced allocation to specifically support providers with possible pay costs associated with newly updated Employment Regulation Orders

The allocation of Core Funding from 2022 to 2025 can be seen in the table below: