Emily Martin, a childminder in Co Roscommon, can't take the children she cares for walks anymore, and still keep within the regulations. She used to bring them down to the Hudson Bay to feed the ducks in buggies and on foot as part of the daily routine. On the way back, they would pass the shops and she would promise them that if they were good all week, on Friday she would take them in for a treat. The Friday visit to the shops became an institution at Emily's house.
Today, despite being surrounded by a beautiful, rural environment, Emily has to confine the children to her house and garden. The regulations of the Childcare Act (1991), which have been implemented recently, require her to have two carers present when taking the children for walks. But she has only herself and a helper and the helper has to remain in the creche with the baby, so she cannot take the children for outings anymore.
Does this make sense? Martin would always care first and foremost for the safety of her children, but in a small community why do you need the State monolith to come cracking down, telling you how to run a creche to such an inflexible degree?
Martin has been looking after children in her home for nearly nine years. It's a happy, relaxed place where the children start out as babies, then continue to come after school up to the age of 12. Emily knows all the families in the area who use her service, and they all know her because she is a vital part of the extended family and community network.
Demand for services such as hers is growing, but childminders like her are becoming rarer. All childminders looking after three or more children other than their own must now register and comply with health and safety regulations under the Childcare Act 1991, but many childminders cannot afford this investment. Martin was fortunate: she could borrow £32,000 from the bank to add a purpose-built creche on to her home and half this amount was covered by LEADER funds - but not all childminders have been willing or able to take on such major investment.
"This week alone I turned away four babies," says Martin, who has been registered for one year now. "Any childminder I talk to is turning people away. It is a crisis. The health boards brought in the regulations, which were needed, but they did this without putting any financial supports in place to help childminders meet them. The result is many childminders have found it so costly to comply with the regulations that instead they have let go children in their care, so they could remain under the limit required for registration."
Many childminders have been reluctant or unable to go into debt or to raise charges, when they could continue to make a similar income by looking after fewer children in the black economy.
