Speech by Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley at the launch of “Shaping the Future: the Early Years Action Plan, Phase 1 Report” and “Simplify and Support: Action Plan for Simplification”

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Introduction

Good morning, everyone.

It is my pleasure to be here this morning to mark the publication of two action plans for the early learning and care and school age childcare sector. It was my great privilege earlier on arrival here at the YMCA Childcare to have the opportunity to meet with staff and indeed to meet with the young children. It really was a terrific joy to see them and to see them so happy and so excited about Christmas and about their activities.

This is a wonderful example of a high-quality service in the heart of Dublin City Centre, with the bonus of a large sports hall and dancing studio which is especially valuable on rainy days. There is a special treat in store for you later, courtesy of the YMCA childcare, but I won’t give away the surprise.

As I have often said as Minister for Children, it is the children we serve. Our singular purpose has always been to serve children. In getting it right for children, we get it right for society. So really, our purpose is to ensure that we have services that facilitate young people and support young people to be the best that they can be, and in particular in terms of early years, I’m a great believer that the earlier an opportunity a child gets in life to be supported and to reach their fullest potential, well then the better the outcome for the child. That’s really at the centre of what we’re announcing here today.

Shaping the Future

The Shaping the Future: Early Years Action Plan, Phase 1 Report sets out the first steps, just the first steps, to achieve key Programme for Government commitments on the affordability, accessibility and achievement of high-quality early learning and care and school age childcare. It also aims to support parents, providers, educators and practitioners and to ensure all children get the opportunities that they deserve in life.

Shaping the Future takes a phased approach which will enable actions in 2026 while allowing the time for the broad consultation necessary to inform longer-term reform. One of the central actions we will carry out in 2026 will be a public consultation.

Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, said:

“Consultation is a good thing when people agree with you, and a waste of time when people don't agree with you.”

I wouldn’t subscribe to that at all.

In this public consultation opportunity, I welcome and really want to see, all shades of opinions, all thoughts and ideas. I recognise that there will be enormous expertise in those who are already involved in early learning and early years education, and I really want to hear and experience and for you to share your thoughts and views because the purpose of the consultation as we launched it is to harness the broadest and most diverse of views.

So with that being said, I’m really pleased and I know we will guarantee we will hear the voices of children, and we must always listen to the children, and even the smallest of children, because they have a great way of communicating their thoughts and ideas, so we will hear from children, we will hear from parents, we will hear from providers, from staff and from the many other stakeholders around the country before we determine how we move beyond 2026 to achieve the commitments in the Programme for Government over the lifetime of the government.

In recent years, we have made progress in the areas of affordability, accessibility and achievement of quality across early learning and care and school-age childcare. Public funding in the sector has increased from over €638 million in 2020 to more than €1.5 billion in 2026, and there has been a substantial increase in the number of children benefitting from early learning and care. It is up this year by a further 5%, rising from around 234,000 children in 2024 to 245,000 children now.

Budget 2026 provides the funding for approximately 35,000 additional children, and so the number in 2026 will be 286,000 children benefitting from the National Childcare Scheme; quite phenomenal figures.

The Access and Inclusion Model, which supports children with disabilities, and Equal Start, which supports children at risk of disadvantage, are big success stories in providing inclusive care and we are going to continue to expand and to grow these schemes. These are big successes, and I know absolutely as a matter of fact these are big successes because of the work that’s done on the ground every day by both providers and by staff and I want to acknowledge that.

The steps that we are taking in Phase 1 of the Action Plan will result in significant change for the sector and we recognise the significant changes that have already taken place. These changes have been driven by a number of important strategies and plans.

I really want to acknowledge the work of providers and staff, the parents and of course the children themselves. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the officials in my department, in particular Anne-Marie-Brooks, the assistant secretary, and her team, who work tirelessly and are so determined to do what needs to be done in collaboration with everybody around the table to ensure we have an outcome and opportunity for children, so I do want to say thank you to officials at the department.

Maria Montessori, one of the female pioneers of early years education, said:

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.”

And how right she was.

The transformation of early years learning in this country in recent years has provided many, many children with a brighter future.

But I really want to say, a lot more work needs to be done, to address the issues around affordability, accessibility and the achievement of quality that are affecting families, providers, educators and practitioners just at this moment.

All of these areas are interconnected. There is no point in providing early learning and care at an affordable cost if there are not enough additional places to meet the inevitable increase in demand. And there is no point in providing additional places if they are not in high-quality services with trained and experienced staff.

Shaping the Future takes an integrated approach to address multiple policy challenges in parallel and to minimise the risk of unintended consequences.

It will take the full lifetime of the government for the commitments to be fully realised. We do have to be honest about that, and indeed I have said that, it is a commitment for Government, and over the lifetime of Government, we will achieve what we have set out in the Programme for Government.

It is important that we take rapid steps to meet these challenges and seek to achieve what we should achieve.

Martin Luther King tells us:

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Today’s launch of the Phase One Action Plan, followed by next year’s Phase Two, will allow us to keep moving and improving in the direction to ensure that we are building a first-class opportunity for children in early learning and care. We have already started to move forward in terms of achieving our ambition of reducing parental fees to a maximum of €200 per month over the lifetime of this government.

In September of this year, maximum fee caps were extended to all Partner Services in Core Funding. Next autumn, there will be a further reduction in the maximum fees that Core Funding Partner Services can charge, which will in turn lower the costs for parents who pay some of the highest fees in the country.

Budget 2026 also enables Core Funding to continue to support fee-control measures. It will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. We all know the pressure that inflation has put on families and there are very few products and services that are still available at 2021 prices.

It is the support of Core Funding that has allowed this to happen. That was the whole raison d'être, if you like, for Core Funding – a fee freeze in return for increased financial state support. Core Funding for providers has been increased from €353 million in Budget 2025 to €405 million in Budget 2026 - a 15% increase.

I am really pleased to say that there are 4,559 services signed up to Core Funding, a 5% increase on this time last year. This is the highest number of Partner Services in Core Funding at any point since the scheme was launched in 2022 and the number continues to grow.

The 2026 allocation for Core Funding also supported the implementation of recently announced Employment Regulation Orders.

This led to a 10% increase - on average - in the minimum rate of pay for early years educators, school-age childcare practitioners and for other roles in the sector in October.

I am pleased to confirm that up to €15 million in 2026 (equivalent to up to €45 million over a full year) is ringfenced to support providers in Core Funding with the cost of possible further improvements in staff wages through the Employment Regulation Order process. That’s an additional €45 million being made available for 2026.

This funding is being made available because the department is aware of the crucial role staff in the sector play in the lives of children and their families. Staff recruitment and retention is essential to ensuring access and supports for children. A professional workforce is necessary for the high-quality experiences that allow for optimal development and you will see from the presentation on the Action Plan that good progress is being made in that regard.

Income thresholds

An important route to improving affordability, in addition to the maximum fee caps, is making changes to the income thresholds for the National Childcare Scheme.

As part of Phase 1 of Shaping the Future, we do this to reduce fees for lower-income families from autumn 2026.

Families can currently get full subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme if their income is below €26,000.

They can get a graduated level of subsidies if their income is between €26,000 and €60,000. These income thresholds have been unchanged since 2019.

Today I’m confirming that I am going to raise the lower income threshold from €26,000 to €34,000.

This means families earning under €34,000 will have most, if not all, of their childcare bills covered by the National Childcare Scheme.

I am also going to raise the upper income threshold from €60,000 to €68,000. This means more families will be able to benefit from a graduated level of subsidies. These changes are key to addressing child poverty amongst working families, and have been called for by the Children’s Rights Alliance and other organisations. The increased income limits will come into effect in September 2026 to reduce the childcare bills for tens of thousands of families on lower incomes.

Increasing supply

We also know that we need to increase the supply of early learning and care, particularly for 1-3 year olds who require higher staffing ratios.

Phase 1 actions will help increase supply through investment in State-led early learning and care and school-age childcare services and providing grants to support the expansion of existing providers.

We will also support increased participation of children at risk of disadvantage through the continued roll out of the Equal Start funding model.

There has been a very welcome increase in the provision of School-Aged Childcare in recent years, due to the fact that parents can avail of the National Childcare Subsidy for it.

Around one quarter of afterschool care is provided in schools, which is very convenient for children and parents.

To enhance the quality of provision, during 2026 comprehensive regulations will be introduced for School-Age Childcare services. We will also commence development of a single quality framework, to replace Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education, and provide a single, integrated basis for external inspections and self-evaluation by services.

While the work of this first phase of the Shaping the Future gets underway, the department will also prepare for Phase 2, which will cover 2027 through to 2029.

As I have mentioned earlier, a broad public consultation will be undertaken to inform development of these actions for wider reform in the early learning and care and school-age childcare sector.

Once the public consultation process has been completed in 2026, we will publish the Phase 2 actions later in the year.

In the meantime, I want to express my thanks in advance for your engagement for the consultation process we will be undertaking next year. Everyone here in this room, in the variety of roles that you fulfil, you absolutely represent a wealth of varied perspectives, as parents, educators, practitioners, providers, and other partners. I look forward to hearing from you all during our upcoming consultation process.

Simplify and Support

On another note, I am also very pleased today to publish Simplify and Support: the Action Plan for Simplification.

I am aware the substantial progress that I touched on earlier in the areas of affordability, accessibility and quality, has created significant additional demands on providers, educators and practitioners. Many have reported that they spend a considerable amount of time on administrative tasks and regulatory requirements, which is leading to stress and diverting resources from the provision of high-quality services.

This Action Plan responds to these issues by setting out the steps we will take - in the short, medium and long term - to reduce administration and simplify regulatory requirements in this sector.

So, what does that mean in reality?

Key actions include:

• Replace multiple application processes under the Access and Inclusion Model – one for AIM, one for AIM Plus and one for AIM non-term - with a single application process.
• a single, long-term Childcare Identifier Code Key (CHICK) for each child under the National Childcare Scheme to replace the existing annual CHICK. And I do want to say, that has been raised many times by providers, the inconvenience of every single time having to apply for a new CHICK. So we are working on a process to ensure that one single CHICK will stay with the child.
• a single set of comprehensive set of regulation to replace existing Early Learning and Care and School-Aged Childcare regulations.

There is also a commitment to upgrade the digital system and that’s really important to providers also.

The Action Plan has been informed by an independent review by Indecon Economic Consultants and as well as regional consultation events attended by over 400 stakeholders last year – reports from each are also being published today.

Its development was supported by a Working Group of officials from the department, City/County Childcare Committees and Pobal and an Advisory Group of provider, educator/practitioner and parent representatives – some of whom are in the room today and, again, I want to extend my sincere thanks.

I am committed to continued working with you and all indeed stakeholders to ensure that going forward administrative and regulatory requirements in the sector are simple, transparent and proportionate - enabling providers, early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners to focus on delivering high-quality early learning and care and school-age childcare - while also ensuring the highest standards of child safety, high-quality experiences and accountability for Exchequer funding.

Conclusion

Frederick Douglass, the social reformer, famously said: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair a broken child”.

He was speaking as part of his campaign to abolish slavery, but his words are just as relevant today in terms of the power of providing early years education, nurturing and support for children at the right time and in the right place. I believe these two Action Plans that we launch today will help us to achieve that.

I want to conclude by restating my continued commitment towards affordable, accessible and high-quality early learning and care and school-age childcare and my commitment to working in partnership with all providers and with all partners in the early years sector.

I look forward to working with you throughout 2026 and beyond as we move to implementation of these action plans. But for now can I thank you all for all you do every single day, for together we serve children and ensure the best outcomes for children. Thank you all. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.