Equal Start: Supporting Children, Supporting Families

This morning, I was delighted to launch Equal Start, a major new initiative to tackle disadvantage and support childcare providers.

Disadvantage early in life can have a lasting impact, seen in inter-generational cycles of poverty and social exclusion. For many years, Ireland has had the DEIS model in schools, but we know that the best way to tackle disadvantage is to tackle it as early as possible.

That is why I launched Equal Start, a funding model through my department to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare.

Equal Start is a new program that will target funding in early learning and childcare, ensuring every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. This multi-million-euro fund will support early learning and childcare settings by providing additional resources, including a Family Community Liaison role, who will support families through the rollout of a training program, and tailored funding and supports for children in Equal Start groups.

Equal Start will begin supporting children from disadvantaged areas, Traveller and Roma children, children experiencing homelessness, children in the International Protection system, and children who avail of the NCS through a sponsor body this September. With setting-targeted support, approximately 800 settings nationwide will benefit in the initial implementation phase. These settings have been identified as operating in areas of the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage.

It is vital that we ensure children from all backgrounds, particularly those experiencing disadvantage, can access and participate in early learning and childcare. The Equal Start program aims to ensure every child has an equal opportunity to achieve their potential. We all know the lasting impact early disadvantage can have on children's development and long-term life chances, continuing the inter-generational cycles of early poverty and social exclusion.

I am immensely proud of the transformational change my department has implemented in early learning and childcare. Since taking office, this government has increased funding for childcare more than any Government before it, from €650m in 2020 to €1.1bn in 2024.

We have increased the number of children benefiting from supports under the National Childcare Scheme. This September, I will deliver in my promise to halve fees, on time and in full. I have secured the first-ever pay agreement and raised minimum pay rates across the entire early childhood profession.

Alongside these, the launch of Equal Start, which will be rolled out from September of this year, is another major step in developing early learning and childcare in Ireland.