About the Funding Model

First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028 commits to increasing State funding in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) to approximately €1 billion by 2028. A key vehicle to ensure that such significant additional investment delivers for children, families and the State will be a new funding model. An Expert Group was established in 2019 to deliver recommendations on this new funding model.

On 7 December 2021, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman T.D., published the Expert Group’s report Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (PDF), following acceptance of its recommendations by Government.

The Expert Group was independently chaired and included national and international experts in ELC and SAC systems, funding and quality; economics; and relevant policy experts from the Government Departments involved in implementing the new funding model.

During its work, the Expert Group engaged in an inclusive consultation and engagement process to take account of the voices of providers, the workforce, parents and other stakeholders within the sector. Research to inform the Group’s work was undertaken by a Research Partner, Frontier Economics. The outputs from these processes are available on the Publications page.

The Expert Group also drew on national and international evidence from a wide range of sources and bodies to inform its report and recommendations. Further information on the Expert Group and their work can be found on the Expert Group, Process and Meeting Documentation pages.

Download the report, Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (PDF), below.