Cork councillor calls for publicly funded childcare model to tackle ‘perfect storm’ in services
The South West Ward Labour councillor is seeking city council support for a new model that the government could trial in Cork
A Cork City Council councillor has called for a publicly funded childcare model, based on existing services, to be piloted in the city to address a "perfect storm” brewing in childcare.
Ciara O’Connor says the “dire shortage” of pre-school and early years cover for working parents shows a “desperate need” for State intervention.
The South West Ward Labour councillor is seeking city council support for a new model that the government could trial in Cork.
Her call, due before the council’s Community Committee meeting later this month, follows the decision of an increasing number of childcare providers around the country to withdraw from the government’s “core funding” grant.
Introduced in 2022, the grant supports early learning and childcare (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) providers with operating costs. It is funded directly to providers as supply-side funding.
While designed to improve affordability for families and enhance quality, the scheme requires participating childcare providers to freeze fees charged to parents.
However, core funding has not kept pace with rising costs. As a result, some providers have left the scheme and increased fees to cover basic expenses.
“In fairness to the government, they have addressed issues around funding for parents and helping them to afford childcare services,” Ms O’Connor, a former early years professional and preschool manager, said.
“But the issue is increasingly not so much an issue around funding for parents, although this is a major issue. Instead, the biggest single issue around childcare provision is its availability.”
She warned that rising fees among providers who left the core funding scheme, coupled with population growth and limited provision, is creating a “perfect storm on the near horizon."
“We need to think outside the box and we need to act fast,” she said.
“I know of places where parents are crying down the phone with frustration at not being able to get someone where to mind their child. That has a huge knock-on effect in so many ways, not least the labour market."
Ms O'Connor continued: “The housing crisis is bad enough but if once you manage to get accommodation, you then face the dire challenge of finding childcare services, it just becomes too hard to live and work in the city.
“We are facing a perfect storm in the country, it is on the near horizon. The time is right for blue sky thinking to solve the problem with a publicly funded model.”
She added: “I know from informal talks I have had with the council, they would be in favour of being involved to some degree, but only if there was funding from central government. I believe there is a case to be made.
“The first step should be a full audit of childcare service provision in Cork city: what is the current situation, what do we need and what will it cost.
“Going hand in hand with that, there also needs to be a look into the economic impact of people who can’t join the labour market because they can’t get childcare.”
She believes a publicly funded scheme should build on existing supports under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme.
The ECCE programme provides free early childhood care and education for children of pre-school age for three hours a day, five days a week, for 38 weeks a year, with the first 15 hours each week free under ECCE.
The NCS provides financial support to help families with early learning and childcare costs. It offers two types of subsidies for children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years.
One is a universal subsidy, not means-tested, providing €2.14 per hour for a maximum of 45 hours per week. The other is an income-assessed subsidy, means-tested and calculated based on a family’s individual circumstances.
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