Childcare providers abandoned by the state

IT is with total despair that we write to outline the serious situation the Government has now put us in.

Minister for Children Barry Andrews recently announced free preschooling for 15 hours a week for all children aged over 3, starting next January.

Of course we welcome the principle of the scheme, but what he failed to mention (publicly anyway) is that we childcare providers will be subsidising this initiative.

We are taking all the commercial risks, paying staff wages and overheads, with large loan/rent commitments, yet the minister has capped our fees, killing our business. We have calculated that this will result in a 25% drop in income, leaving us in a hopeless position.

Many providers have remortgaged their houses so they could have a state-of-the-art learning centre for the children. This was encouraged by the state over the past seven or more years, yet now they have pulled the rug from under us.

Any parent we spoke to has no issue whatsoever with paying the balance of fees to equate to our normal fee, but the Department of Health and Children will not allow this.

Would the department now like to take over my loan as a trade-off? It seems to be doing this for the developers, so maybe it should do so for us? We will not be able to meet our financial commitments if there is no amendment to the scheme.

If this happens it will result in a reduction in childcare places and staff being let go.

We have been in the childcare sector for 19 years and are now totally disillusioned and feel abandoned by the state.

Áine Murphy

Hopscotch Childcare

Curraheen Road

Bishopstown

Cork