Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth today
announced a landmark €1.025 billion in funding under Budget 2023 for early learning and
care and school aged childcare. As part of Budget 2023, parents using a full time service will
see their early learning and childcare costs reduce by 25% on average as National Childcare
Scheme funding gets a major boost.

This represents a €346m increase on last year’s funding and means the First 5 investment
target of €1 billion by 2028 has been exceeded – five years ahead of time.