Quick summary
- Core Funding is paid to the service, mainly through a Base Rate tied to staffed capacity, not to individual children's attendance.
- In return, participating services agree to fee caps and a fee freeze condition.
- Programme Year 5 (from September 2026) brings Core Funding to over €480 million, up more than 23% on Year 4's €390 million.
- The maximum fee cap for a typical full-time place (around 45 hours a week) drops from about €198 to €183.70 a week under Year 5.
- A separate Staff Funding Additional Contribution, up to €1.14 an hour, helps cover pay increases agreed through Employment Regulation Orders.
- Community and private ELC/SAC services registered with Tusla are eligible; some registered childminders are too, under specific conditions.
What makes Core Funding different
ECCE capitation and NCS subsidies both follow the child. The amount a service receives depends on which children are enrolled and how many hours they attend. Core Funding works differently. The majority of it is distributed through a Base Rate, calculated from the service's staffed capacity: opening hours, operating weeks per year, the age groups catered for, and the number of registered places available, regardless of whether every place is filled on a given day.
This is a deliberate design choice. It's meant to give services a more predictable, stable income than pure per-child funding would, in exchange for services accepting conditions on what they can charge families.
The trade-off: fee caps and the fee freeze
Participating in Core Funding isn't unconditional. Fees can't exceed the level a service was charging on 30 September 2021, or the date the service first contracted into Core Funding if that's later. This is generally referred to as the fee freeze. On top of that, the Department sets maximum fee caps centrally, reviewed each programme year alongside the Budget.
Genuinely new, optional services can still be charged for separately, but they have to be optional and proportionate in cost. Core Funding isn't meant to be worked around by inventing mandatory add-on charges.
| Programme Year | Total Core Funding | Max fee cap (~45 hrs/week full-time place) |
|---|---|---|
| Year 4 (Sept 2025 – Aug 2026) | Over €390 million | ~€198/week |
| Year 5 (from Sept 2026) | Over €480 million | €183.70/week |
Figures as announced 3 June 2026. Confirm current figures with gov.ie before relying on them, these are reviewed annually.
Staff Funding Additional Contribution
Alongside the Base Rate, Programme Year 5 carries forward a separate, ring-fenced allocation, up to €45 million, to help services meet increased staff pay agreed through Employment Regulation Orders (EROs), the sector-wide pay agreements negotiated by the independent Joint Labour Committee. The maximum rate is €1.14 per hour, and it's released in proportion to the cost of the agreed EROs rather than paid automatically to every service regardless of what they're paying staff.
Who's eligible
Core Funding is open to community and privately owned early learning and childcare (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services registered with Tusla. Registered childminders can also be eligible, provided they were registered under the relevant regulations in September 2024, have remained continuously registered since, and are now registered under the 2024 Childminding Regulations.
Core Funding, ECCE and NCS together
Most services don't receive Core Funding in isolation. It typically sits alongside ECCE capitation and NCS subsidies, funding different parts of the same operation. Core Funding supports the underlying capacity and staffing of the service; ECCE and NCS follow individual children's hours on top of that. Getting the most from all three means understanding which one applies to which hours, and making sure your fee schedule reflects the fee cap and freeze conditions Core Funding actually imposes, not just what feels sustainable.
Practical advice
- Model your fees against the current maximum fee cap, not last year's. A cap reduction (as happened moving into Year 5) can catch services out if pricing isn't revisited each year.
- Keep a clear internal record of your fee freeze reference point (30 September 2021, or your Core Funding start date if later) so you can demonstrate compliance if asked.
- Track any Employment Regulation Order changes affecting your sector and claim the Staff Funding Additional Contribution promptly rather than absorbing the cost first and querying it later.
- Don't assume Base Rate income is fixed indefinitely. It's tied to your registered capacity and operating pattern, so changes to opening hours or places should be reflected in your next application.
How Tot Tracker helps
Tot Tracker keeps fee schedules aligned to the current maximum fee cap and your own fee freeze reference point, so pricing changes are checked against the rule instead of being set manually each year. Combined with ECCE and NCS hour tracking, it gives a single, consistent view of how Core Funding, capitation and subsidies apply across your enrolled children, useful both for day-to-day billing and for demonstrating compliance if asked.