Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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1498.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children, by county, who benefitted from supports under the national childcare scheme in 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35511/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The total number of children who benefitted from a successful claim under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) to date in 2024 is 181,778. This compares to 152,086 for the same period in 2023 i.e. 1 January to 31 August. This represents a total increase in the number of children benefitting from NCS supports by 19.5%.

The total number of unique children with successful NCS claims in 2023 was 182,030.

A full breakdown on the total number of children benefiting from a successful claim is detailed in tabular form below. It should be noted that the breakdown is based on the County of the provider where the claim is made. Children may be registered in more than one county, so the total figure will not match the sum of each column.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1499.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps his Department is taking to ensure creches continue with core funding and that they do not pull out from the core funding (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35539/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.

This funding, which increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2, will increase again by another 15% in year 3 (to €331 million). This will facilitate the following changes from 2 September:

• The Base Rates for all age groups are increasing with larger increases in funding for places offered to children under the age of three. In short, all providers currently signed up to Core Funding will receive a higher payment going forward to support their day-to-day costs.
• The flat rate for services registered on the Tusla Early Years Register as sessional-only (a pre-school service offering a programme for a total of not more than 3.5 hours per session) is increasing from €4,075 to €5,000. This will strengthen supports to sessional-only services, who typically operate for shorter hours per week and fewer weeks per year.
• The minimum Base Rate allocation is increasing from €8,150 to €14,000. This is the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service (not childminders) will receive through their Base Rate, and ensures a minimum guaranteed income for services. This increase supports for smaller services and services operating in rural areas, who may be prone to fluctuations in demand.
• The maximum Base Rate allocation is decreasing from €600,000 to €500,000. Services will not receive funding through the Base Rate beyond this maximum value. Any service receiving more than this maximum value will see their Base Rate funding reduce to this level.

Up to now, services availing of Core Funding have not been allowed to raise their fees above what was charged to parents on 30 September 2021 (or at the point of first signing up for Core Funding if the service did not exist on 30 September 2021).

The fee freeze will remain in place for the majority of these services for year 3 of Core Funding, though there are two new developments:

• Services whose fees have been frozen at a level that may not be sufficient to sustain their business even with increased funding available through Core Funding, will have the opportunity to apply for a Fee Increase Assessment. Only services currently charging low fees (fees below the average in their county) will be eligible to apply.
• A cap on fees is being introduced for services joining Core Funding for the first time in the third year. A fee cap will apply to all services in Core Funding from September 2025.

• the level of increase required following an assessment of the service, or
• the equivalent increase in NCS universal subsidy for parents/guardians

Services are strongly encouraged to avail of these supports as an alternative to withdrawing from Core Funding and removing the benefit of Core Funding to children and their families.

While it is my ambition to have as high take-up as possible, a small proportion of early learning and childcare services – approximately 5% overall - chose not to join Core Funding in Year 1 and Year 2. Applications for Year 3 of Core Funding are on par with the same period last year and remain open to all eligible services to apply.