Creche owner wary of `red tape' with grant

Ms Alice Walsh runs the Harcourt Creche in Harcourt Street, Dublin. She caters for some 50 full-time children and employs 10 full-time staff in the creche which she has owned and managed since 1993.

Under the new childcare package she should, given that she has over 20 children in her care, be eligible for grant aid.

However she is not convinced that it is worth her while applying.

"Applying for grants has always been far too complicated, there's just been so much paper work involved and the application forms have been difficult to understand."

Ms Walsh said that she will only apply for any new grant if she can clearly see that it will benefit her staff.

"Childcare is a tremendously underpaid career, but my main priority is my staff. If a new grant would allow me to increase their weekly pay, or get them rent allowance, or reduce their tax, then I would go for it."

Currently Ms Walsh's sole income is from the rates she charges for childcare, which are £85 to £100 per week for each child in full-time care, with a lower fee being paid by parents whose children attend the creche part-time.

She receives no grant aid and never has. Her biggest out goings are wages and rent.

"I spend over £100,000 a year on wages and around £28,000 on rent." She also has the standard heating, lighting and accountancy bills.

Ms Walsh has the added costs of food for the children, which amounts to £7,000 to £10,000 a year. She also has to buy art and crafts materials, as her creche is also a montessori school, and then there is the considerable costs of annual refurbishment.

In childcare, she said, the condition of your premises is very important and the establishment must be kept immaculate, regardless of cost.

"This business operates on a very tight margin," she added. "People are only willing to pay so much for childcare and they don't really care where the money goes."