Politics

Social Democrats promise to spend €250m on early years education and cap fees at €250 a month

‘Twin-track’ system would use budget surpluses to buy existing childcare businesses and build new facilities

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore speaking at the launch the party's Childcare and Early Years Education policy, in Merrion Square Park, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore speaking at the launch the party's Childcare and Early Years Education policy, in Merrion Square Park, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Jack Horgan-Jones
Wed Oct 23 2024 - 14:39

The Social Democrats have promised to buy up small childcare operators as part of a plan to build a public system for early years education and bring down costs to parents to €250 a month.

The party published its pre-election plan for Early Years Care & Education in Dublin on Wednesday.

Jennifer Whitmore, the party’s spokeswoman on children, said that in government, the Social Democrats would invest €250 million in the existing system to bring down the cost of childcare to €250 per child per month, using the current structures for subsidising care.

Promising a “twin track approach”, Ms Whitmore said that the party would start “developing the pathway to the public model”, with €100 million annually put aside from current budgetary surpluses to build new childcare facilities and purchase both vacant purpose-built settings and operational businesses.

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The party estimates that the cost of running 80 services, catering for approximately 6,000 children, would be about €50 million per year at current salary rates. Purchases of operational businesses would be made on a voluntary basis, Ms Whitmore said. The party is also promising to ensure no new schools are built without a childcare facility on the site.

The party’s childcare document argues that smaller business are being bought out by “large multinationals or by capital management companies”, with significant amounts of taxpayer funds “taken for profit for investment funds, rather than being reinvested in the service”.

Asked if the Social Democrats would remove private provision entirely, Ms Whitmore said there would likely be some degree of private provision under a fully operational version of their policies, but that larger corporate entities would not be supported.

“The problems we see in care provision, in childcare and in care for older people is because we have actually focused far too much on the use of the corporates to provide fundamental public services,” she said

“Absolutely we are not factoring them into this policy. What we want is a policy where the State runs childcare and early year services and they are run for the benefit of parents and for children and for the staff that’s in them.”

The party’s document refers to the example of Canada, which it said has stricter conditions for providers in receipt of public funds, which must sign up to principles in keeping with public provision.

“As a result, multinationals and investment funds are not interested in childcare in Canada as profit extraction is capped, there are clear rules about how much parents pay, and providers must open their books to show what they are paying staff,” the policy said.

“If 60 or 70 per cent of a business’s turnover is coming from the taxpayer, government should have a right to talk to those businesses about profit caps and staff working conditions.”

Jack Horgan-Jones

Jack Horgan-Jones

Jack Horgan-Jones is a Political Correspondent with The Irish Times