Paul Hosford: What will it take to put childcare front and centre in the national conversation?

Having been such an important part of the election campaign, it is strange that childcare hasn’t received the same level of political attention as, say, energy prices or other cost-of-living issues.

Remember the general election?

It was only nine months ago, but it seems to have been consigned to the collective dust bin of time by much of the country.

A fairly tepid campaign returned more or less the same Government, and weeks of arguing the toss about divergences found Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalesce around a platform of policies which weren’t too different to begin with.

While the January agreement of a programme for government was met with scorn by the opposition, the coalition parties trumpeted it as the way forward for Ireland.

However, one of the key criticisms that parties came to at the time was that the section on childcare was notably thin.

Childcare had become one of the key issues of the campaign and had found most of the parties agreeing on one thing: The price of it has become unsustainable from most families.

However well debates about childcare in the campaign were about who had proposed a €200 per month per child cap first, the programme for government commitment was much watered down.

Committing to progressively reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child through the national childcare scheme while exploring options to cap costs for larger families, the document contains little in the way of a commitment on just how this will be achieved.

Throughout the election, the issue was top of the agenda. Then taoiseach Simon Harris effectively fired the starting pistol on the entire election by pledging to reform the sector, and promised that no parent would have to pay more than €200 per child per month for care if his party was re-elected.

He told The Indo Daily podcast that, were he returned to power, he would publish a roadmap for introducing the cap in the first 100 days of the Government.

He was joined by his tánaiste Micheál Martin, whose Fianna Fáil announced a multi-annual funding commitment on childcare place affordability and accessibility as part of a “new pledge to workers and young families” in its manifesto.

Sinn Féin’s take was slightly different, having pledged in September to deliver quality childcare for all who need it for €10 a day per child at a cost of €345m to the exchequer. Labour’s commitment to the idea goes back to 2022.

During the campaign, there was little argument with the concept: Childcare costs needed to come down to €200 a month

As a parent, I nodded sagely and agreed. Our creche bill for the then one-year-old was just under €800 after a second increase to the national childcare subsidy came into effect, on top of around €650 for the older child’s childminder, because he couldn’t get a place in the same creche’s lone afterschool room — which has since been shut anyway.

The promise of a €200 a month cap is a gamechanger for most families I know. For example, it would save my wife and I around €1,000 a month. That’s the quantum we talk about here.

However, before the programme for government’s ink was dry came news that the Department of Children had approved fee hikes for 660 childcare providers. My younger child’s creche was among those providers and our €800 bill became €937, effectively absorbing the benefit of the changes to tax bands in the previous October’s budget.

Fee increase applications

In response to queries, the Department of Children said that for the programme year 2024/2025, 1,145 fee increase applications were received. Inclusive of appeal outcomes, 898 services that applied to the fee increase assessment process were approved to increase at least one fee.

These are childcare providers who receive what is called core funding from government schemes, with increases pegged to the expenditure of the provider.

“This represents 78.70% of all applicants to the fee increase assessment, and 20.20% of all partner services in core funding,” a spokesperson for the department said.

So for 20% of families, fees have not only not gone down, they have gone up in the months following an election in which the prohibitive cost of childcare was a key factor.

And while many of the larger providers are making profits, it’s not just a case that parents are being gouged. The criteria for a fees increase, according to the Department of Children, were that if a service has fees that support their expenditure +15.18%, they were not granted permission to increase as the process “is about supporting viability”.

In other words, without the State’s support, there is a reasonable belief these businesses could fail.

However, the core funding model isn’t completely protecting parents either. Earlier this month, three providers — including a provider in Cork that caters for 450 children — told parents it was leaving the scheme, with Ollie Sheehan, the owner and director of Mary Geary Childcare in Carrigtwohill, telling the Irish Independent fees would rise by 34% when the provider leaves the scheme.

“Core funding isn’t working,” he said.

There is insufficient funding for providers, and we are locked into fees from 2019. That’s a huge problem as costs are rising

“The other thing for me is that the Government has no plan to recognise high-quality childcare within the scheme.”

Days earlier, the Once Upon A Time provider told parents it was leaving the scheme and new prices will take effect from September 1, resulting in fees increasing to €1,472 per month in Dundrum, €1,390 per month in Shankill, and €1,300 in Ballymount.

While the department will point out that only a handful of creches have left the scheme, that’s of scant consolation if you’re about to be charged €1,472 for you child’s place — especially when scattergun planning has meant that many areas are woefully underserved for places and competition in an industry being held together by a workforce that is societally undervalued and underpaid.

The minister for children, Norma Foley, announced a maximum fee cap for new and existing services taking part in core funding in June, meaning that the highest possible fees will be no more than €295 per week for a full daycare place.

However, according to figures from the Department of Children, the highest average fees being paid at the moment are in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area at €258.

Having been such an important part of the election campaign, affecting so many and with so many facets seemingly in need of address, it is strange that childcare hasn’t received the same level of political attention as, say, energy prices or other cost-of-living issues.

In February, Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Irish Examiner that while he did not wish to speculate on what might be in October’s budget or “cut across” other ministers, he does envisage a change to childcare costs.

He said the €200 per month amount is “one of the few specific monetary commitments in the program for government”.

Asked in Japan last month if childcare would be addressed in October, Micheál Martin hinted it would but wasn’t definitive.

“I think we want to continue to make progress on childcare, but we have a whole range of issues now that we have to make progress on,” he said.

It is likely that some measure will be taken in October to address the cost, but there are clearly issues with how the system is resourced across the board.

What will it take to put childcare front and centre in the national conversation? Another election, probably.