Budget 2027: Parents want State to buy and build facilities to fill ‘childcare deserts’

Following Budget 2027, the National Childcare Scheme will receive an additional €65m in funding in a bid to reduce childcare costs from next September, bringing the maximum monthly fee down to €550.

Mother of two Carrie O’Hanlon has been working locally to highlight an issue affecting many regional towns across the country — a lack of childcare spaces forcing families, usually mothers, to take unpaid leave to plug gaps.

The true demand for places — in early childhood education and care, and in school aftercare — can be hard to assess, as parents in a bind turn to informal arrangements which often go underreported.

But limited childcare places, particularly for under-twos, and regional variations have led to what the National Women’s Council (NWC) has termed ‘childcare deserts’ springing up in various parts of the country.

These tend to be towns or areas that expanded rapidly in recent years in terms of development, without the necessary expansions of childcare to match. For parents in these areas, cost isn’t yet a factor as they haven’t been able to access a place.

Tramore in Waterford, where Carrie is based, is one such area.

Following Budget 2027, the National Childcare Scheme will receive an additional €65m in funding in a bid to reduce childcare costs from next September, bringing the maximum monthly fee down to €550.

Under the Department of Children's budget for 2027, the universal hourly subsidy will increase from €2.14 to €2.50 per hour for children up to senior infants.

Carrie O'Hanlon says parents who cannot get places for their children 'are not interested in subsidies if they cannot avail of a place to get the subsidies'.

“All of the subsidies are welcome,” Carrie said. 

However, she points to a local survey she ran with parents in Tramore at the end of the summer. Many parents taking this survey said they would like to see the State pay childcare workers' wages directly.

“It stops staff from leaving jobs, it raises their pay and lowers parents’ fees, which is what the subsidies are working towards. 

It's about respect for the profession and recognising them as an important part of our national infrastructure. 

"That would be a major overhaul of how the Government funds the sector, so it is asking for structural reform of childcare.” 

The survey also found strong demand amongst parents for the State to buy and build new spaces. 

The survey was taken by almost 250 parents who cannot access places, Carrie said. 

“It was probably skewed in that the people answering this survey cannot get places for their children, so they are not interested in subsidies if they cannot avail of a place to get the subsidies.” 

At the end of September, the locations of the seven proposed new early learning and childcare projects under the State-led early learning and childcare capital programme were announced.

Waterford was not included on the list of projects. Carrie points to the 400 new homes recently built in Tramore. 

“The population has exploded in the last three years; none of that is captured on the last Census.” The lack of places changes the whole dynamic for families, she added.