Expert warns on costly, low-quality childcare

LOW-QUALITY early education and childcare can increase developmental risks according to an expert who warns that high costs lead to inferior quality services.

At an international conference in Dublin yesterday, Nóirin Hayes of Dublin Institute of Technology’s Centre for Social & Educational Research highlighted the weaknesses of our poorly-regulated childcare market, in which less than half of 1% of national income is invested.

She said that governments in most European countries contribute between two-thirds and 90% of total pre-school costs but said the situation is reversed in Ireland.

“The current market-lead investment approach in Ireland is a cause for concern, because the market is fragmented and of variable quality, while there is unequal access to services in local areas and nationally,” she said.

Ms Hayes, who is widely published internationally on the subject, believes low quality early education and care can increase child-related and family developmental risks.

“High [childcare] costs also threaten equality of opportunities in the labour market and child poverty remains high because of weak support for families,” Ms Hayes added.

A key international report last September highlighted Ireland’s poor level of State funding and regulation of childcare and early education. The study for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed just 15% of under-threes are in licensed care here.

In line with last year’s OECD report, Ms Hayes recommends quality early childhood services be provided for all children, which would require a more than doubling of State investment, and allowing paid parental leave for the first year of a child’s life.