The level of additional supports for the childcare sector announced in Tuesday’s budget has been described as like a “kick in the stomach” by the industry.
Elaine Dunne, chair of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, met Roderic O’Gorman and officials from his department on Wednesday.
Ms Dunne said the 6 per cent increase to Core Funding, the support provided to creche operators to help with basic running costs, was “simply not enough” but her attempts to make a case for more substantial increases in a number of areas were rebuffed at the meeting.
Government spending on early learning and childcare for next year has been increased by 24 per cent, or €266 million. However, a significant portion of this will be taken up with meeting the full-year cost of measures announced in last year’s budget, which reduced the cost of childcare for thousands of parents by increasing National Childcare Scheme subsidies.
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No new subsidies were announced for next year, though funding to cater for more children – up to a total of 216,000, it is estimated – was provided along with more money for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme which provides free care and education for preschool children.
About €35 million in additional funding was also allocated to the AIM and Equal Start programmes, which provide a range of supports to children with disabilities and those from less well-off families respectively.
Despite this, Early Childhood Ireland, an umbrella body with 3,800 provider members, described the budget measures as “utterly insufficient” and a “missed opportunity”.
It said the budget will “fail to deliver real change for the early years and school-age care system, despite prior statements from the Taoiseach about making Ireland the best place in Europe to be a child”.
The organisation’s director of policy, Frances Byrne, said “the reality is that following the budget, with a general election pending, children, families, providers and staff will now have to wait until 2026 before new funding is allocated. This is just not acceptable when there is some €23 billion surplus available.”
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The budget did provide an additional €15 million towards the cost of improving pay in the sector, a 50 per cent increase in the public money earmarked for the purpose.
This was welcomed by Siptu, which described the move as “progress”.
“Low wages are pushing passionate educators out of the sector but we’re now moving in the right direction,” said the union’s sector chair, Avril Green. “Quality early childhood education and care benefits children’s development. However, it can’t be sustained with low pay for those delivering it.”
The money will be used to support the provision of the next pay agreement in the sector, with operators signed up to Core Funding receiving help with the costs involved.
Despite a number of high-profile defections from Core Funding by providers in recent months, meanwhile, 90 per cent of providers are said to have now signed up for next year’s grant, with the final figures expected to be close to or in line with previous years.
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