Childcare funding should be extended to parents using minders, says accountancy body

Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) has called for the Government to expand childcare funding to parents using childminders.

The professional accounting body urged the initiative as part of a list of suggested policy measures that it says could save parents €4,500 per year on childcare costs and free up “vital working capacity” in the economy.

The CAI represents close to 33,000 members and has today published a policy paper on the economic benefits of improved childcare policy for working parents. In January it published data highlighting that one-third of its members pay €1,000-€2,000 monthly for childcare and 16 per cent (mostly women members) have reduced their working hours to care for a child.

Places for children with unregistered childminders do not attract the same National Childcare Scheme (NCS) funding for parents as creche places, which are limited and often difficult to secure.

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In its policy paper, Supporting Working Parents — The case for Better Childcare Policy, the CAI has called on Government to expedite plans to widen NCS funding to the parents of up to 80,000 children who use childminders who are not registered with Tusla.

The CAI also calls for streamlining of core funding by reducing administration, accounting for inflationary pressures, and providing “appropriate and competitive” pay for early-year educators.

Other suggestions in the policy paper include increasing capital investment and grant support in the sector and launching an improved campaign to raise awareness among working parents about existing supports.

CAI president Sinéad Donovan said that the cost of childcare is a generational issue that affects men and women in “different but equally real ways”.

“Allowing childcare challenges to persist constricts labour market capacity, narrows the tax base through lower labour market participation, and maintains the gender pay gap by making it more difficult for parents, proven to be predominantly women, to return to the workforce full time,” she said.

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Cróna Clohisey, tax and public policy lead at the CAI, added that “bolder interventions” are required to effect change in childcare.

“We know what the challenges are for providers and parents and we welcome the upcoming increases to NCS subsidies. But as a mother of two young children, I’ve seen first-hand the difficulties in securing creche places, the scramble to find a childminder, and the quest to make full-time employment viable for parents. The policy tools to address these are already largely in place, so it is time to move to solutions mode,” she said.

Separately, this week, members of CAI and fellow professional accounting body CPA Ireland (formerly the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland) will vote on a proposal to amalgamate.

An online vote closes at 1pm on Wednesday, February 14th, with a final in-person opportunity to vote at the CAI special general meeting on February 21st.

If passed, the amalgamation of the CAI and CPA Ireland would create the largest single accountancy body on the island of Ireland, with a combined membership of more than 37,000.

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