Minister Foley welcomes 9 in 10 early learning and childcare services into Core Funding for fourth year.
- Published on: 15 September 2025
- Last updated on: 15 September 2025
- Over 4250 services have now applied for the fourth year of Core Funding, committing to work in partnership with the State to deliver early learning and childcare for the public good.
- Applications remain open for the scheme, which is worth €390 million to the sector.
- Maximum fee caps will apply to the very highest fees charged by Core Funding Partner Services, reducing costs for parents facing the highest fees across the country.
- Fee freeze will remain in place for Core Funding Partner Services with fees below the maximum fee caps.
- New funding element, the Staff Funding Additional Contribution, will distribute ringfenced funding secured in Budget 2026 for improved pay.
Norma Foley, Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, today announced that 89% of Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services have signed up for the fourth year of Core Funding to date.
For the fourth programme year of Core Funding, which runs from September 2025 to August 2026, over €390 million in funding has been made available to early learning and childcare services, which represents an increase of over €60 million (18%) on the third programme year.
It is expected that 90% of services will have completed their sign up to Core Funding in the coming days. The 90% uptake rate is consistent with previous years of Core Funding, and services can sign up to the fourth year of the scheme at any point over the course of the programme year.
This year the scheme will continue to support affordability for parents while also ensuring improved quality and sustainability of Partner Services. To further these objectives, the initial cap on high fees introduced in the 2024/2025 programme year for First-Time Partner Services has been incrementally reduced and extended to all new and existing Partner Services from September 2025.
A new funding element, the Staff Funding Additional Contribution, was introduced in Year 4 in support of services meeting the cost of increased minimum pay rates in the sector as a result of new Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee.
Alongside the increased Core Funding allocation of €390 million, services facing sustainability challenges can continue to avail of supports through the Department’s established case management process. This involves local City and County Childcare Committees and Pobal working together to assess and provide support including financial support to services experiencing difficulties.
Welcoming the news, Minister Foley said:
“I am delighted that almost 90% of services have already chosen to come into partnership with the State by applying for the fourth year of Core Funding. Widespread uptake of Core Funding will ensure that more services will benefit from the additional €60 million investment in State funding, while guaranteeing that affordability measures are passed on to the largest number of families. This is a significant step towards achieving my commitment to progressively reduce the maximum payment by parents to €200 per child per month for early learning and childcare in the lifetime of this Government.”
The Minister added:
“I look forward to working in partnership with these services in the coming year to achieve great things for the sector and build on the successes of the Together for Better funding model.”
For more information on Core Funding, including a list of Partner Services and allocations for previous programme years, please visit: Core Funding