Mothers protest at Government axing of childcare funding

“I REALLY don’t know what I will do now,” said bewildered Dublin woman Rosaleen Hickey, one of 40 mothers who protested yesterday over the axing of childcare funding for adult education students.

“We were promised when we did this back-to-education course that our children would be taken care of in the creche and paid for,” she added.

Rosaleen and the other mothers and childcare workers marched on the Fianna Fáil constituency office in Finglas where they held a brief demonstration. Efforts are being made to arrange a meeting with local TD Pat Carey, who is absent from the office this week.

Students participating in the course, under the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS), had been entitled to €63 weekly to pay for childcare in community creches. The Finglas protesters are just one of many student groups around the State who were told last week the grant was no longer available. Rosaleen, who turns 35 next month, is concerned about the prospects for her son Jason, aged three and a half. “It’s his last year in the creche and it would be a shame to take him out because he has a speech problem and because he has been in the school all over the summer as well.

“I was doing my Junior Cert last year and I am doing my two-year Leaving course this year. Jason’s getting education by being in the creche as well. He’s really coming on well, it would be a shame to take him out. I couldn’t afford to pay €45 a week out of the money I get. It’s after putting me back big time - I’d only be left with 10 for the rest of the week by the time I finish all my bits and pieces.”

Some 5,500 adults attend VTOS courses run by the 32 vocational education committees around the State. Two thirds of them are women, mainly studying for their Junior and Leaving Certificates; 1,338 students had been in receipt of the allowance.

Finglas Childcare Centre, which provides affordable child care for the mothers, is partly funded by the Government through the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and under the community employment scheme run by FÁS.

“We’re in the position that we have funding for staff, but we have no children because people can’t pay for the places,” said manager Damien McCluskey, who accompanied the Finglas group at their protest.

“We provide affordable childcare for in the region of €40 a week for four to four and a half hours per day, which is quite affordable for people. In saying that, for somebody who is unemployed and a single parent €40 would be an awful lot of money out of her budget.”