'It’s impossible to make ends meet': Preschool closure crisis in Cork

Preschool owners say they are “crying out for help”, as new figures show that 26 early years services in Cork have closed since January 2023.

Figures provided to The Echo by Tusla show that nine Cork preschools closed in 2024, among 95 to close across Ireland.

This is on top of data which showed 17 closures in Cork and 115 nationally in 2023, meaning 210 Irish preschools have shut in just two years.

Rowena Fisher, who owns Phyll’s Preschool in Bealnamorrive, told The Echo: “It’s so sad. We warned this was going to happen, and it’s the children losing out.

“We’ve been asking for an immediate increase in capitation, it’s the only way we’re going to be viable — if it isn’t raised from €69 to €90 a week, this will get worse.”

Settings that participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme receive a set amount from the State through capitation.

The standard rate is €69 per week per child.

“It’s impossible to make ends meet, we have highly qualified staff who deserve so much more, but we can’t afford to pay them more,” Ms Fisher said.

“The auto-enrollment pensions are coming in now, and I don’t know where the money is going to come from.”

She continued: “I really do feel at this stage that the Government seem to want the small and medium services gone, I can’t see why else they wouldn’t be offering support when we are crying out for help.

“There’s still a need for my service, I am turning away three to five families a week, and I’m the first in the parish to know who’s pregnant because people are desperate to get a place.

“But it seems the Government don’t want us, so they’re pushing us out — it seems like they want big places opened 10 or 12 hours a day, but the quality in bigger services is not the same.”

Ms Fisher explained that she has had to expand her service, opening every morning at 7am for breakfast club, transporting children to local schools then collecting them after school.

“I’ve also had to get a second job a few days a month. Those hours are funding my preschool — but I didn’t train to do homework with 10-year-olds.

“It’s not why we have level 8 honours degrees in early years education, this model of education suits people, and they don’t just send their children to me for childcare.”

She added that there are “crazy amounts” of paperwork, which she spends hours on in the evenings as she cannot afford an administrative staff member.

“Paperwork isn’t why I got into this career, and there’s a constant fear of doing something wrong in one of the forms.

“We now need new chartered accounts which I’m going to have to pay an accountant for, even though the department know the money we get because they’re the ones who give it to us.”

Ms Fisher concluded: “It’s very, very hard — it’s my business, but I have no control over it. It’s impossible to make ends meet, and there are small services closing down all over rural Ireland, much-needed services in the community.

“We welcome fee reductions for parents and pay increases for staff, but provider stability has to be in line with that — at the moment, we’re just praying for change.”