More than €4 million in Government funding to the childcare sector is set to be returned due to a delay in ratifying an already-agreed 10 per cent pay increase for the more than 30,000 workers in the sector.

The money represents about 10 per cent of the €45 million in ring-fenced funding to support pay in the early years sector which was allocated in last year’s budget.

The funding year for the sector runs from September 1st and the money was to be allocated evenly across 52 weeks.

It means the failure to ratify the agreement reached by representatives of owners and staff at the start of the summer after a Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, overseen by the Labour Court, is holding up the implementation of the increases and resulting in the loss of €865,000 in public funding per week.

Speaking at Siptu’s early years sector conference at Liberty Hall in Dublin on Saturday, Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley said she wanted to see all of the money provided by Government to the sector reach it and was particularly anxious to see the pay and conditions of staff improve but “the JLC is an independent process and I have to respect that”.

She told delegates she hopes the process of implementing the deal would be completed “within weeks”.

Siptu’s Darragh O’Connor said the loss of funding had been caused by delays on the employer side in agreeing the deal. “It’s not the first time that has happened – the previous deal took over a year to conclude. We need these deals to be concluded in good time so educators don’t lose out like this.”

Ms Foley said the Government remains committed to the targets set out for the sector in its programme, including the reduction of fees to parents to €200 per month, but the scale of progress made in this budget would depend on the amount of funding made available to her department.

Negotiations are understood to be continuing between Ms Foley and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, with one meeting having taken place last week and another scheduled for the coming days.

[ Budget 2026: Norma Foley to consider relief proposals for parents paying highest creche feesOpens in new window ]

Ms Foley said she was pleased to see that supports introduced by the previous government meant many parents on low incomes were now paying rates at or below the OECD average for childcare but she was conscious that for many on middle and high incomes there were still instances of “very high fees”.

It was reported earlier this week in The Irish Times that the budget is likely contain measures intended to particularly help those families paying the highest amounts in fees, and Ms Foley also mentioned those with three or more children as being potentially among the most hard-pressed at present.

In addition, she said, “it is the intention that we drive forward with the public model while recognising the great service that is provided by those who are the private providers.”

Siptu’s Diane Jackson said the union wanted, among other things, to see the State’s first publicly operated early years service open next year. Its assistant general secretary, John King, said Ms Foley should spark a “Donogh O’Malley moment” by transforming access to early years the way her predecessor as minister for education had with secondary education in 1967.

She said the Government continues to see public-run services as part of the anticipated future mix and as a tool to address geographical shortages but she could not put a time frame on any roll-out.

Also at the event, her predecessor as minister for children, Roderic O’Gorman, urged her to move forward immediately, saying: “I know from experience that if you want to see results in years three, four and five, you have to act in year one.”

Increasing allowances for asylum seekers who leave the country voluntarily could be a way to make the immigration system more efficient, Paschal Donohoe has said.

The Finance Minister was commenting after it was reported on Saturday that Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan is to increase the allowance to €2,500 for individuals and €10,000 for families. Mr Donohoe was asked about the report in the Irish Times as he joined Fine Gael colleagues on Saturday at a conference in Carlow the party hosted for small and medium-sized businesses.

“I understand Minister O’Callaghan is looking at this at the moment,” he said. “We know that deportations do play an important role in relation to having a fair and efficient migration system in place.

“But it’s also costly, it also takes a lot of time to actually make them happen. I understand what Minister O’Callaghan is doing is looking at is there other ways in which we could ensure that those who will be leaving Ireland at some point in the future, do so in a more timely and a more efficient way.

“This is a decision that he’s able to make inside his own budget. We, overall, as a Government believe that having an open economy and an open society is enormously positive.

“It’s really important for the growth of our economy, really important for our society to continue to grow, but, at the same time, we do need to have migration rules that are clear and well implemented, and this appears to be a way in which that can be further delivered.”

Minister Donohoe also insisted the Government had not made any decision on changing the income threshold criteria for carer’s allowance. The Irish Independent reported on Saturday that the reform of the carer’s allowance is set to be a key plank of the budget, with the move expected to result in thousands more people qualifying for the support.

“I can tell you no decisions have been made with regard to the budget,” he said. “And Minister (Jack) Chambers as Minister for Public Expenditure is now engaged in negotiations with all ministers in relation to specific matters, but how we support carers has always been a key focus of budgets that have been done.”

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