The Government should follow Denmark’s model and fund 70 per cent of childcare so parents have “more choice” and providers have “more flexibility”, Childhood Services Ireland (CSI) has said.
In its 2025 Budget submission CSI, the Ibec trade association representing childcare providers across Ireland, said “expanding parental choice” and giving providers “more flexibility in how they run their business” were “essential to stable, high-quality, early childhood care and education”.
CSI also called on the Government to invest 1 per cent of GDP in early learning and care by 2028, as recommended by Unicef. Early childhood care and education are a “universal right for children” but historically in Ireland they have remained “significantly underfunded”, it noted.
“We know that this is the most critical developmental time in a child’s life and access to high quality early learning and care is key to long term success and positive outcomes across multiple domains,” said CSI director Stephanie Roy.
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The submission also calls for the removal of the Government’s fee freeze as part of Core Funding in light of a 20 per cent increase in operating costs, and warned the freeze had “created hardship” for providers.
“Many providers have not increased their fees since 2017, and with no visibility on how to offset ever increasing costs it is creating an untenable situation,” said the submission, adding that Core Funding “has not kept pace with inflation”. It noted that two-thirds of childcare providers are privately run and must turn a profit in order to continue but cannot cover the rising costs of wages, food, energy and insurance.
Introduced in 2022, the Government’s Core Funding model offers a grant to early learning and childcare providers to help with operating costs, requiring a freeze on fees in return.
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman announced earlier this month that €331 million would be dedicated to the third year of Core Funding, representing a 15 per cent increase on the second year’s funding. CSI is calling for a 35 per cent increase in Core Funding for 2024-2025.
The Minister also said services could apply for a fee increase within Core Funding “where appropriate”. When this does occur the National Childcare Scheme subsidies will ensure that “no increase in out-of-pockets costs will be felt by parents/guardians,” said the department.
The CSI budget submission also calls for a 50 per cent increase to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme which provides three hours of free care for children five days a week. There has only been one increase in the capitation rate since ECCE’s introduction in 2010, it said.
More funding is also needed for the administrative costs associated with the National Childcare Scheme which is “adding additional stress on providers’ already stressed human resources”, it said.
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