Outrage over four-year gap in creche inspections
The director of services at the National Children’s Nurseries Association (NCNA) Teresa Heeney also criticised the lack of Government action over rental rates for creches at a time when there are a growing number of vacancies due to the recession.
Almost one-third of NCNA members surveyed for the body’s annual report had not received a HSE pre-school regulations inspection last year – 22% of those are in the Dublin area. She said the NCNA had plenty of anecdotal evidence regarding the shortfall in inspections and said in parts of Dublin some members had not had an inspection in four years.
“It is an outrage,” she said. “It is simply not good enough for Irish children.”
Inspections had been hampered further due to a shortage of inspectors, the public service hiring embargo and the swine flu outbreak, which meant some labour had to be moved away from nursery inspection last year, she said. The NCNA also raised concerns over other issues, such as the decrease in staff numbers in nurseries. More than one-third of members, 36% of the 222 respondents to the survey, said they had decreased their staff, with 86% of respondents claiming this was due to fewer children being looked after in creches because of the recession. Munster nurseries had the greatest number of staff reductions, with 53% employing fewer staff. The average weekly cost of childcare is now €168 for a full-time place, down from €174 in 2008. A baby place costs an average of €180, with a sessional place costing €75 and a school age place costing €93.
Dublin had the highest cost across all areas, followed by the rest of Leinster, and then Munster, where a full-time place now costs €157 a week on average, compared with €186 in Dublin. However, Ms Heeney said the fall in average costs could lead to a fall in standards, particularly as many childcare providers are still faced with high rental rates as most are not exempt from commercial rates.
She said the Government had made some progress in this regard last year but, with the introduction of the free pre-school year last year, many nurseries are struggling to survive, particularly in areas where they have higher overhead costs. Some nurseries in Dublin face rents of up to €80,000 a year, she said, at a time when there is an average 20% vacancy rate in each nursery, up from 16% in 2008.
Yesterday, Minister for Children Barry Andrews revealed 51,000 children have registered to take part in the early childhood care and education scheme from January 2010.
