My Budget: Relief on childcare fees a ‘road to nowhere’

Bob Quinn and his wife Steph have two young children and the pair estimate they will have spent €100,000 in creche fees by the time their youngest starts primary school.

Last week their six-month-old Abigail joined Teddy, who is nearly 4-years-old, in the creche, near the family home in Naas, Co Kildare.

The couple pays €1,700 a month in creche fees, which Bob said is “like paying a second mortgage.” He runs his own financial planning business, and his wife recently returned to work as a data protection officer.

He says he did not hear anything in Paschal Donohoe’s budget speech that would reduce his childcare fees. “If there’s an increase in creche fees that’s money out of my pocket, just to stand still,” he said.

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“The two of us want to work, we’re in our late 30s, we have spent years training, educating ourselves,” he said.

Unlike some parents, they not have the option of relying on grandparents to help with childminding.

The Government had committed to making life easier for families, he said. “This is a family in Naas where nothing is getting easier ... I’m going to be worse off over the next 12 months with the increases in diesel,” Mr Quinn said. “It feels like we’re on a road to nowhere” he said.