Childcare Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

I thank Deputy Dempsey. I have always made it clear that the €200-per-month programme for Government commitment is to be achieved over the lifetime of this Government. We did discuss this earlier. Shaping the Future: The Early Years Action Plan, phase 1 report, was published last December and we have now moved on to phase 2 of the action plan report. That is very much focusing on consultation and drawing in the opinions, thoughts and lived experience of people who are in the sector, such as parents and others who have an interest in this area.
The consultation process has been really significant. We were really pleased that over 11,000 people engaged online with the survey. There were 56 local consultations held right across the country. They were on the ground, as it were. I want to acknowledge the work of the City and County Childcare Committees in that respect. There was also, very importantly, an engagement with children. It was done in art form but it was important that the views of children would be solicited and harnessed. There will also be a national consultation event which will take place later this year.
Results of this consultation, phase 2, and the additional analysis, will inform how we move forward from 2027 through to 2029. The fee-freeze and maximum fee caps required for core funding have been key to the progress in recent years in making early learning and care and school-age childcare services more affordable. The 2026 actions on affordability will include further reductions in some of the highest fees paid by parents by lowering the maximum fees that core funding partner services can charge. In addition, from autumn 2026 we will reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-income families through the national childcare scheme, NCS.
The measures we are introducing include an increase to the lower base or income threshold of the income-assessed subsidy from €26,000 to €34,000, and on the upper end increasing it from €60,000 to €68,000, to extend income-assessed subsidies to more families. An increase to the multiple child deduction, MCD, component of the income-assessed subsidy is also being provided for where there are two children under the age of 15.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23