Campaigners call for action on ongoing childcare crisis as Cork families pay up to €280 a week

Childcare campaigners from the Together for Public Alliance gathered outside Leinster House on Thursday to call for action to tackle the ongoing childcare crisis.

The latest available figures from Pobal show that families in Cork city are paying up to €280 for full-time daycare per week.

The Government has committed to developing an action plan on early childhood education and care, to reduce fees for families to €200 per month per child, and to roll out State-led, public childcare provision.

However, the campaigners, led by the National Women’s Council (NWC) and including representatives from SIPTU and the ICTU, say they are yet to see significant action to progress these commitments 100 days into the new government.

Minna Murphy, who operates two preschools and an afterschool service near Watergrasshill, told The Echo that a private model should see the government treating early years educators similarly to teachers.

“Teachers have all these perks. We operate 38 weeks like they do and if we offer the ECCE scheme, the only money we get is from the government. But my staff have to sign up for the unemployment benefit during the summer months,” she explained. 

“I am originally from Finland so I have seen how the public model there works. It enhances everyone’s wellbeing — families, staff and providers,” she said, adding this is the norm not just in Nordic, but in many other European countries, and that Ireland is lagging behind in investment compared to most.

“In Finland, we are under the umbrella of the department of education because we are seen as that first step on ladder, so it’s a recognition of the importance of the work, it’s not just about salary and holidays and perks.

“I am in my tenth year now with my service, and only when I expanded to a second service and afterschool am I able to pay myself a managerial salary, before that I always paid the staff and the business first,” Ms Murphy added.

Orla O’Connor, director of the NWC, said the childcare crisis is especially affecting women, including marginalised women “who cannot participate fully in society and are often forced to reduce their working hours or even leave the workforce entirely”.

Changing this “will only be possible in a sustainable way if we move away from the current private provision of childcare subsided by the State, to a system where the State delivers childcare directly through a not for profit, public system,” she said.