17/08/2026
📘 The FECP Core Funding Review is Now Live
Today, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers is proud to publish the FECP Core Funding Review – an independent, review of one of the most significant policy programmes shaping Early Years and School Age Childcare in Ireland.
This report examines the impact of Core Funding on:
✅ Provider sustainability
✅ Staffing and workforce pressures
✅ Affordability for families
✅ Service viability
✅ Professional pay and career progression
✅ The future capacity of the Early Years sector
Core Funding has transformed the sector and increased public investment.
FECP welcomes that investment.
But investment alone is not the measure of success.
A childcare system can only be affordable, accessible and high-quality if the providers delivering it are financially and operationally sustainable.
Over the course of this review, we examine key issues including:
• The growth of Core Funding alongside reduced provider flexibility
• Fee freezes, fee caps and historic fee lock-in
• The gap between wage policy and full wage-cost funding
• The frozen Graduate Premium
• Professional career progression and workforce retention
• The challenges facing ECCE-only and sessional services
• Like-for-like closure and capacity reporting
• The limitations of reactive sustainability supports
• The ageing provider profile and succession risks facing the sector
• Practical recommendations to strengthen the model for the future
Our position is clear.
Core Funding should not be abandoned. It should be rebalanced.
Ireland needs a model that protects affordability for parents, quality for children, professional careers for educators, and sustainable services for the providers delivering them.
📄 The full report is available to download via the link in the comments below.
We encourage providers, educators, parents, policymakers, elected representatives and everyone with an interest in the future of Early Years to read the report and join the conversation.
If you believe this report contributes to the discussion on the future of our sector, please like, comment and share to help it reach as many people as possible.
A sustainable childcare system cannot exist without sustainable providers.
Strong Providers. Strong Sector. Strong Future.
Federation of Early Childhood Providers
