State paying childcare sector wages would be key step in meeting €200 per month pledge

A commitment by Government to taking over the payment of wages in the childcare sector would reduce average weekly fees for parents from €200 to €56 and help address the sector’s staffing crisis, a coalition of campaign groups has said.Members of Together for Public, an alliance of NGOs, unions and others who support a State-backed childcare system, said such a move would have the support of many employers and take the State much of the way towards meeting its commitment to cap monthly costs at €200 per child.“What we hear from the providers is that the biggest cost they face is essentially wages,” National Women’s Council executive director Corrinne Hasson said at an event held to highlight the growing number of children aged under three on waiting lists for places in early learning services.“So what we are asking for is the Government to really, really come through on their commitment to bring early years education and childcare down to €200 per month per child. READ MORE“You look at our school system, the Government pays the wages, even though the schools are individually run by their own boards. So really it’s about investing in childcare. It’s about investing in quality, and that’s what we’re hoping to achieve in Budget 2027.”Figures from Pobal, published last December, show that up to 46,241 children aged under three were on waiting lists for places in services, up from just over 40,000 a year before. The numbers are difficult to be exact about because many parents put children on multiple lists due to the difficulty in securing places. There was little confidence among the alliance that the figures for this year would be any better, with Hasson suggesting recent closures in the sector are likely to contribute to another increase.Corrinne Hasson, executive director of the National Women’s Council. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill “We have over 50 organisations involved in the alliance, some of them childcare providers, and they are saying 70 per cent of their costs are wages, after which it’s keeping the lights on, it’s buying the things that they need to keep these spaces open,” she said. “So the stress that some of these providers are under is huge, to the point where so many of them are closing or they’re losing staff, who are mostly women whose hours and pay are often precarious ... So we need to invest, not just in the system but in the people.”In the meantime, she added, parents continue to struggle with a system they may find difficult to access and then challenging to afford when they do. Anne Waithira Burke, AkiDwA, Elaine McQuillan, CEO of StartBright Early Learning Centres, Corrinne Hasson, executive director of the National Women’s Council, and Darragh O’Connor, SIPTU, as the National Women’s Council highlights the large number of children on childcare waiting lists nationwide. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Anne Waithira Burke, of migrant support group AkiDwA, said some progress had been made in recent years in tackling key issues, but thousands of parents continue to wrestle with childcare and early education issues. She said migrant families can be particularly badly hit because of a lack of wider family support networks.“If you can imagine that you’re in a new country, you don’t know anyone, no support system, but you have young children and you need to put them into childcare that is costing an arm and a leg,” she said. “Many of those who would love to go into work cannot do so because they just can’t afford it.” She said public childcare would ensure that “nobody, no family” is left behind. “It’s about making sure that we have opportunities for everybody to get their children into childcare and actually get them an education.”[ Childcare workers in Siptu reject pay offers on new minimum ratesOpens in new window ]