Devote 1 per cent of GDP to childcare - and give the funds to both community and private providers. It's unfair and discriminatory that community providers get more money than private providers, and that working parents have to pay more than they can afford for private childcare, says a new lobby group made up of the Border Counties Childcare Network and private childcare providers in counties Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Monaghan, Meath and Louth.

At present the majority of funding in childcare comes from the EU, but will not last forever. Successive governments have failed to implement the childcare targets set down by the European Commission Network on Childcare and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Government will boast of all the money it has made available for childcare services, but it's not enough. Private providers must come up with 35 per cent of total capital costs, with a ceiling of €50,800. Community groups get 100 per cent funding with no ceiling. Both groups are doing the same job, with the same qualified staff for the same clientele.

Community groups can access €63,500 per year and in some cases up to €101,600 per year. £28,500 was allocated to County Cavan for all private providers for the year ending 2001. As at present, no funding has been allocated for 2002 for the private providers.

Private providers rely on parents' fees alone - which means that they cannot afford recommended pay scales for their staff. Parents cannot afford to pay any more, even though what they are paying is not enough. Yet quality staff must be paid fairly if private providers are to offer to working parents the best quality care for their children.

The funding system segregates children in need from children whose parents can afford to pay, placing needy children in community care settings and other children in private settings. "This stigmatises and segregates our children, the future of our nation, from as young as four months, into those that can afford the real cost of childcare as opposed to those who can not." Working parents are also being discriminated against because they are not getting the equal and affordable access to childcare that EU legislation promises.