More child places ‘will not cut cost of care’
“People think that childcare will be cheaper if more places are provided but that will not happen because of the cost of providing the service,” NCNA national adviser, Ashling Hooper, said yesterday.
Ms Hooper accused the Government of portraying the image that, if they provide more places, the costs will go down. This would not happen because the costs involved were going up, she stressed.
“Services that are trying to pay decent wages to their staff find between 65% and 75% of turnover goes on pay,” said Ms Hooper.
And, she said, while the supply of childcare places was “patchy” in some parts of the country, some crèches were having difficulty filling the places available.
“There are new childminding services being established in areas where services already exist and they cannot fill the places available,” she said.
Fine Gael’s Social and Family Affairs spokesman, David Stanton, said the supply of childcare places was still totally inadequate in some parts of the country.
He referred to a new report by Cork City Childcare Committee that found that there were just 1,700 places available for 4,000 pre-school children, which was less than 45% of the childcare places needed.
The TD also pointed out that childcare costs had increased by 23%, with average childcare costs now standing at €500 a month.
Ms Hooper said there was a need to ensure that the shortage of childcare places in some parts of the country was addressed.
She pointed out that additional funding had been provided to the National Childcare Investment Programme to address this.
“If the Government announced tomorrow that every three to four-year-old had a free pre-school place there would not be enough places in Ireland to deliver on that,” she said. “It is a question of getting the supply right.”
The NCNA has calculated that a quality childcare place should cost nearly €250 a week, if the right equipment is provided and the wages and conditions for staff are adequate.
“At the moment there are not many places charging that, so who is taking the shortfall?” she asked. “A lot of staff are just being paid the minimum wage.”
Some services in Dublin are charging between €160 to €220 per week per childcare place, which is much higher than services in some country areas that are charging €120 per place. “What are they paying their staff if that is the case?” she asked.
The NCNA, which has about 650 members, represents over 60% of the full day care sector.
Total supplement: €1,000 in a full year
First installment: €250 on Monday
Who qualifies: Every child under the age of six. So families with two children under the age of six will receive €500 next week, those with three children will receive €750, and so on
Is it taxed? No
Are families obliged to spend the money in a certain way? No.
Method of payment: Automatic. It will be paid in the same way as child benefit. 75% of families, for instance, receive their child benefit directly into their bank accounts.
The supplement will be paid in the same manner.
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