Sir – Like many parents, we recently received notice that our childcare provider is withdrawing from the Government’s Core Funding Scheme, resulting in fee increases of about 40 per cent for some families.
We are in an excellent creche and they are clearly facing pressures: rising wages, insurance, utilities, food and compliance costs. The Government core funding scheme is not keeping up with these costs.
It points to a deeper problem in the system itself. The Government speaks about childcare as essential social infrastructure, yet an increasing number of creches are now opting out of the State’s affordability scheme because they believe it is financially unsustainable.
Parents are left caught in the middle: between providers under real pressure and fee increases many families simply cannot absorb.
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There is also a broader issue around the viability of working parenthood, particularly for mothers. Many creches do not take babies until they are 12 months old, while maternity leave provision typically covers six months.
Families are already struggling to bridge that gap in care before childcare even begins. Significant fee increases only make returning to work more difficult and, in some cases, economically unviable.
Surely the question now is this: what is the purpose of a State childcare affordability scheme if providers increasingly feel compelled to leave it?
Parents need a system that can deliver both quality childcare and predictable affordability. At present, it appears to be delivering neither. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS GUIDERA,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin
