Sir, – As a parent, finding a creche-place for your child is not easy, and even before they are born you may struggle to register them on a waiting list. As an owner/manager operating a childcare business, finding and retaining staff, meeting costs and juggling funding, present very real challenges.
It is even more difficult for graduates who have worked hard for their early years qualifications at QQI Levels 6, 7 and 8 to enter and remain in the profession they love for as little as €15.00 per hour. This year the Government has committed an additional €45 million to be invested in workforce salaries, which everyone agrees is a critical step forward in recruiting and retaining staff.
The problem is the €45 million must be negotiated and agreed, and the employer bodies are not currently in talks. So, the funding that is essential to those working in childcare is on the table, but without the employers sitting down, the €45 million will revert to the exchequer and will not find its way into staff pay packets. Why won’t the employer organisations sit down and talk? – Yours, etc,
Marlene McCormack,
