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.