Parents will be 'left to pick up the pieces' until under-investment in childcare tackled

Until under-investment in childcare is tackled, parents will be “left to pick up the pieces”, Early Childhood Ireland claims.

Early Childhood Ireland, which has 3,800 childcare service members, said Ireland still lags far behind other EU countries even with recent investment from Minister Zappone's department.

“We have the lowest level of public expenditure in the early years in the EU – 0.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) versus 1.9% in Sweden,” said Frances Byrne, the organisation's director of policy and advocacy.

“Until this under-investment is tackled, Irish parents will be left to pick up the pieces, along with professional early years staff who have low wages, unlike in other countries where they are properly compensated through publicly supported and properly subsidised creches,” she said.

Early Childhood Ireland is calling for a 10-year programme of proper investment in a fit-for-purpose system which supports both creches and childminders, and which will allow parents to pay fair fees and allow providers to offer wage security to staff.

As well as a commitment to greater investment, the organisation wants the Government to establish a one-stop-shop for the childcare sector where parents can access real-time information on the creches in their local area instead of waiting for an annual snapshot.

Ms Byrne said the one-stop-shop could happen immediately and would be cost-neutral: “This is the least children and parents deserve."

Dr Zappone said the childcare fees were drawn from almost 4,000 early childcare services around the country.

The lowest full-time weekly fees for young children aged two to three years were recorded in County Carlow at €148 with the highest in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, at €251. In Cork, the weekly average cost for children aged two to three was €199.36, compared to €166.46 in Clare, €173.36 in Kerry; €164.85 in Limerick; €157.99 in Tipperary and €164,41 in Waterford.

Despite a record investment childcare was still higher in Ireland than in other member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with wide variation in fees across the country.

Dr Zappone said investment in childcare increased from €260m in 2015 to €574m last year – a 117% increase made over the past four budgets.

It also emerged this week that “poverty pay rates” are forcing experienced childcare workers to leave their jobs. A survey published by SIPTU based on the responses of more than 3,200 individuals in June found that 94% of childcare workers cannot make ends meet on their pay and 66% of women do not receive paid maternity leave.

With a 25% turnover of staff childcare services are struggling to retain qualified experienced workers and the problem may worsen with half of all those working in the sector looking for a different job.