Cork city records Ireland’s second-highest early years staff turnover

Cork city has the second highest turnover rate of staff in the early years sector in Ireland, amid school closures due to staffing.

Earlier this month, a preschool in Wilton closed suddenly, just days after posting an advertisement looking for staff, leaving around 20 children without a place.

Minister for children Norma Foley said that while the current data shows “positive trends” with a fall in the national average turnover rate, the figures she shared in the Dáil show that this is going the opposite way in Cork city.

There was a 31.7% staff turnover rate in Cork city, the second highest in Ireland, behind Dun Laoghaire, according to the 2025 Early Years Sector Profile.

This marks an increase from 29.3% the previous year, while Co Cork’s 2025 turnover rate of 24.1% was down significantly from the 27.4% reported in 2024.

Ms Foley said: “I do acknowledge that many early learning and care and school-age childcare services report staffing challenges in relation to recruitment and retention.

“In a very competitive labour market and with low levels of unemployment, recruitment and retention is a challenge for all employers.

“In general, these challenges are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by turnover caused in general by low levels of pay.”

She added that although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages, but through the Joint Labour Committee there has been an average 15% increase in minimum rates of pay in the last four years.

Labour councillor Ciara O’Connor, who worked in the early years sector for many years, both as an educator and manager, said the figures are “incredibly disheartening, but sadly not surprising”.

“The high cost of living in Cork is undoubtedly a factor, but this also reflects a wider failure to properly value early years professionals,” Ms O’Connor said, adding that many educators hold Level 8 and Level 9 qualifications and undertake continuous professional development.

“The pay rarely reflects that level of expertise and responsibility,” she said.

“People enter this profession because they love working with children, but passion alone doesn’t pay the bills.

“I know from speaking with providers throughout Cork city that many struggle to recruit staff, never mind retain them.”

Ms O’Connor said that burnout is increasing in educators due to “the increasing complexity of children’s needs in mainstream settings, particularly given the shortage of specialist early intervention services”.