Devil is in the detail of Budget 2027's increase to the childcare subsidy

The cut in childcare fees announced in today's Budget will come as cold comfort for parents who had been hoping for immediate relief

There is the fact that the €550 figure is based off a 45-hour week, which the minister says is the most common choice for parents.

The only thing I know about the future, is that it's coming any day now.

When government sources touted a big change to childcare fees, parents across the country, this writer included, rejoiced at a €550 cap on fees. Tánaiste Simon Harris had said that help was on the way and children's minister Norma Foley delivered.

Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers announced it on the floor of the Dáil, sealing the deal.

"I am reducing the maximum childcare fees paid by parents, from €735 to €550 per month for children up to senior infants. This will save parents €2,220 per child per year."

Two. Thousand. Two. Hundred. And Twenty. Euro.

But with my mind drifting to my newfound riches, the devil in the detail popped out.

Yes, there will be another cut in maximum fees and an increase in the National Childcare Scheme, the subsidy which keeps costs for parents down, but it will not kick in until September next year — 11 months away.

This is not the first time that such an announcement has been made. In 2023, then-children's minister Roderic O'Gorman announced a large increase in the subsidy that would come into effect in the following September. 

In her post-Budget press conference, Ms Foley explained that this was because the early years budget is aligned with the academic year and the budget happens six weeks into the current school year. 

While this makes some sense on an administrative level, it will be cold comfort to those parents who had been hoping for immediate relief.

Asked about the delay, Ms Foley said that it was not her choice, but rather "the package that we got", suggesting that if she could have made the cuts tomorrow, she would have. That suggests that waiting to bring in the cuts is about saving money, despite the fact that childcare cuts have been signalled as a key priority for this government.

There is also the fact that the €550 cap is not a universal thing, as many parents will be paying above that figure come next Halloween. 

First, there is the cohort of parents whose creche providers are not in the Government's Core Funding model and, thus, do not avail of subsidies. Around 7% of providers are outside the model but they can often be the only option for parents. 

Then there is the fact that the €550 figure is based off a 45-hour week, which the minister says is the most common choice for parents. However, that is not the universal experience. 

Many creches now only offer 50-hour programmes, the maximum payment for which will see a cap of somewhere closer to €640 a month, if you can work out the advanced maths of the subsidy. While those parents paying more will gratefully and gleefully take that, the Government has expressly said that €550 would be the maximum. 

It is not a failure of policy as such — as a parent of a toddler who is in a 50-hour service, I'm not angry at a looming cut to my costs, far from it.

But many parents have been paying a second mortgage in childcare for years and after Mr O'Gorman's second cut, some 900 providers increased their fees, meaning that many parents have effectively gone back to where they were in September 2024. 

While maximum fees have been brought down, many parents will have seen no real decrease in two years. That help, as Mr Harris said, is coming. But it will take time to get here.

• Paul Hosford, deputy political editor