A publicly funded and delivered childcare system should be introduced in Ireland to help tackle the significant costs of childcare and the disproportionate care responsibilities on women, the National Women’s Council of Ireland has said.
At the launch of its pre-budget submission for 2026, the council petitioned for an additional €300 million to be allocated to the sector next year, including a pilot programme for publicly delivered services at a cost of €30 million, prioritising under-serviced communities.
Ireland ranks among the top three European countries for the cost of early childhood education and care.
The organisation asked the Government to deliver on its commitments to significantly expand family leave provisions and to remove the means test for the carer’s allowance.
READ MORE
To achieve this, Donal Swan, the council’s economic equality co-ordinator, said the Government needs to adopt a social protection model “which is focused on delivering public services where and to whom they are needed”.
Continued investment in services targeting domestic and gender-based violence, a mother-and-baby unit for postnatal mental healthcare, and an extension of the fuel allowance to those who receive the working family payment – the vast majority of whom are women – were the council’s other key asks.
“We want to see the first budget of this new Government as a real marker for women’s rights and equality,” said Orla O’Connor, director of the council.
The launch featured a contribution from Anne Waithira Burke, project manager at AkiDwA, a national network of migrant women, who spoke about the multiple barriers faced by marginalised and migrant families in accessing childcare.
Other panellists including Chloe Ní Mháille, the national development co-ordinator at Community Work Ireland, Emilia Marchelewska, of Cairde’s migrant mental health initiative, and Paula Soraghan, community development worker with Independent Living Movement Ireland, spoke about how increased investment in these areas would improve the lives of minority groups and communities.
