Pay parity discussed in meeting with Minister Foley

Meeting with the Minister

As part of our Budget 2026 campaign, Early Childhood Ireland was pleased to meet with the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley TD, to discuss our significant Budget proposal, calling on the government to name a date to bring Early Years and School Age Care graduates’ pay in line with primary school teachers.

In the very constructive discussion, Early Childhood Ireland spoke about giving recognition to the critical role that Early Years and School Age Care educators play in the most formative years of a child’s life, laying the foundation for lifelong learning and child well-being. We discussed how bringing Early Years and School Age Care graduates under public sector pay and conditions would go a long way in resolving persistent staffing issues, improve capacity and consequently, better outcomes for children.  For Early Childhood Ireland, addressing staffing issues is a critical step in vindicating children’s rights to high-quality experiences, and will ensure equitable access for all children.

We await the publication of Budget 2026 on Tuesday 7 October 2025.

Oireachtas update

Below is a synopsis of recent Parliamentary Questions.

Core Funding participation rates

92% (4,446) of services participated in the third year of Core Funding, with a record number of services participating.

As of 4 September 2025, 83% of eligible providers had signed up to the fourth year of Core Funding, 2025/2026, or 4,070 services.

A breakdown of services’ engagement with Core Funding as of 5 August 2025 is below.

Staff Funding Additional Contribution (ERO)

In the 2025/2026 programme year a new Core Funding element, the Staff Funding Additional Contribution, will be introduced to centre-based services to distribute the €45m of ringfenced Core Funding to support providers in meeting the costs of increases in minimum rates of pay arising from the independent Joint Labour Committee process.

Fee Increase Assessment process

The number of services which were approved to increase at least one fee from their fees list represents 78.70% of all applicants to the Fee Increase Assessment, and 20.20% of all Partner Services in Core Funding.

In programme year 2025/2026, the Department intends to recommence a process whereby services meeting designated criteria may apply to the Department to increase their fees up to an approved level. This is specified in the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement and Rules Document for programme year 2025/2026.

Action Plan for the Early Years and School Age Care system

The consultation on the Programme for Government commitment to publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system with State-led facilities adding capacity, will commence this November. It will be completed in two phases, with more details to be shared by the government soon.

Capacity
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New Forward Planning and Delivery Unit

The Forward Planning and Delivery Unit within the DCDE has been allocated additional resources and staff. A forward planning model, under the remit of this unit, is in development which will be central to the Department’s plans to achieve the policy goals set out in the Programme for Government to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system, with State-led facilities adding capacity.

Planning Guidelines

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in conjunction with the Department of Children Disability and Equality and the Department of Education and Youth have established a Working Group to create a clear mechanism for information sharing and discussion between Departments in relation to current and future policy related to planning of early learning and childcare services, including examining the existing 2001 Section 28 Childcare Guidelines for Planning Authorities.

Capital investment

Allocation of capital investment to build or purchase state-owned early learning and childcare facilities is being considered within the context of the revised National Development Plan.

The Department of Children, Disability and Equality was allocated €795m between 2026 to 2030 under the revised NDP Plan but this figure was not broken down into how much will be allocated to Early Years and School Age Care. We expect to hear more at Budget 2026. Please see the table below for a breakdown of capital allocations for the Department for each year up to 2030 under the Revised NDP Plan.

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Equal Start

Since September 2024, approximately 800 Equal Start settings have been receiving funding for additional staffing hours that can be used to support engagement between the settings and families, as well as other child and family support services. An allocation of more than €11,700,000 was provided for Staffing Supports payments in Budget 2025.

Fees
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Maximum fee caps

Maximum fee caps were introduced for new services last year, and in September 2025 they will be extended to existing services also. Under these new fee caps, the fee for a full day place – of between 40-50 hours per week, the most common full day care operating hours – will be no more than €295 per week (before State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme and the ECCE programme are deducted), the fee cap for 50+ hours of care is €354. All of the fee caps will reduce the highest fees at each fee band in the country.

Fees – Early Years

The most recently published fee data for the 2023/24 programme year indicates that the average (median) weekly fee per child before any government subsidies was €190.00 for full day early learning and care.

The highest fees for full day provision in 2023/24 were charged by services in Dublin – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, where the average full-time fees were reported at €258.57. Whereas the lowest full day fees (€150.00) were in Leitrim.

Fees – School Age Care

The most recently published fee data for the 2023/24 programme year indicates that the average (median) weekly fee per child before subsidies was €165.00 for out of term school age care. The highest fees for out of term school age care was charged by services in Dublin – Dún-Laoghaire-Rathdown and in Dublin – Fingal, both at €200.00. Whereas the lowest out of term fees were in Leitrim at €132.50. The national average hourly rate for SAC is €5.

Administrative burden

An Action Plan which will outline short-term, medium-term, and long-term administrative and regulatory simplification measures will be finalised and published in Autumn 2025.

Measures already implemented include

• Introduction of an online application process for Qualification Recognition. This online application process ensures applicants can upload their application documents with user-friendly, efficient, and accessible digital forms.
• A Simplified Core Funding application process for providers by continuing the introduction of cloning functionality to give the ability for services to clone: a) their most recently approved Core Funding Application from the 2024/2025 Core Funding Programme Year as their 2025/2026 original Core Funding Application, and; b) fee tables

Find out more about Early Childhood Ireland’s Budget 2026 submission here. If you would like to get in touch, or have any queries about our work, please contact policy@earlychildhoodireland.ie