Average weekly childcare bill hits €120

CHILDCARE costs have soared by more than 23% in just over two years with the average bill now exceeding €120 per week.

New data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show weekly childcare costs in the first quarter of 2005 — the latest year for which figures are available — range from just under €100 in border counties to over e145 in Dublin.

The finding has prompted a warning from Labour’s spokesperson on children Senator Kathleen O’Meara that families are being placed under increasing pressure with childcare costs rising five times faster than the rate of inflation.

“Hard-working families are finding it more and more difficult to cope with the financial burden of childcare,” said Ms O’Meara.

She claimed the Government’s subsidy of €19 per child per week did little to help families who were facing childcare bills of up to €500 per month.

“The Government has taken no steps that would control the costs. As a result, moms and dads have to work every hour available and have no time to be parents,” she said.

The CSO survey also shows childcare costs have risen to over €184 per week for families requiring more than 40 hours of paid child-minding.

The latest quarterly National Household Survey by the CSO reveals that more than 40% of families with pre-school children regularly rely on non-parental childcare arrangements during the normal working day.

However, it also signals that a majority of families with young children still have parents or guardians as the main carers, probably as a result of the high cost of childcare.

The number of households relying on non-parental childcare arrangements has increased by 15% since 2002 to 82,600 families. Family relatives provide over a quarter of these households with unpaid childminding services.

Parents who have to engage professional childcare services are paying an average of €131.35 per week for pre-school children — up from €106.37 in 2002.

Households in Dublin face the highest childcare costs in the country — paying over 24% above the national average in childcare for toddlers.

Over one-in-five of all families with children in primary school also employ professional childcare workers. The survey shows that around 66,700 families are paying an average of €86.82 per week for childminding services for primary school children.

Overall, the average cost of childcare for infants of all ages has increased from €97.53 per week in 2002 to €120.64 per week in 2005.

The survey found crèche and Montessori schools are the most expensive type of childcare available for both pre-school and primary school children.

However, the CSO figures show that the average hourly rate for childcare declines as the number of hours increases.

Crèches and Montessori schools emerge as the most popular form of non-parental childcare for families living in the greater Dublin region, but unpaid relatives are the most commonly used type of childcare for parents in the border, midland and south-east regions, while paid carers are the predominant type in the west, mid-west and south-west areas.

The survey also highlighted how one-third of the 31,900 lone parents with pre-school children go out to work.