Minister for Children Brendan Smith has signalled that the Government may change its plans to restrict access to subsidised community childcare to social welfare recipients.
This follows growing resistance to the move by childcare providers, Opposition parties and Government backbench TDs.
Under new funding plans due to come into force from next July, only parents who are on social welfare or availing of the family income supplement will be able to avail of subsidised community-based childcare.
As a result, thousands of parents on lower and middle incomes will have to pay the full cost price of community-based care. About 10,000 children are in community-based not-for-profit childcare facilities.
However, Mr Smith pledged yesterday that working parents on low incomes will not suffer as a result of the changes.
"If there are deficiencies, we will deal with them and adjust the scheme accordingly. I can assure anyone who is going into employment that is on a relatively low income that they will not suffer as a result of the changes."
He said that under the existing system it was clear that a significant number of community childcare providers were not charging parents on a tiered basis in accordance with their income level.
This meant the system was not targeting those most in need of support, while much better-off parents were benefiting from subsidised childcare.
The Government, meanwhile, is facing pressure on the issue from its own TDs, including Fianna Fáil TDs Chris Andrews (Dublin South East), Jim McDaid (Donegal) and Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath).
Mr Andrews said he will call for changes to the scheme at the next meeting of the parliamentary party.
He said the changes are in danger of "ghettoising" childcare and reinforcing welfare dependency. He said they could also force low-income parents to stop working as they would not be able to afford to pay for creche places if their income exceeded the new limits.
"The difficulty is that this is an extremely blunt form of means-testing people and it can only serve to reinforce people's dependency on welfare payments," he said.
Donegal TD Jim McDaid also expressed concern at the changes. At a recent parliamentary party meeting he put forward a motion calling for the plan to be deferred or urgently reviewed.
"In my opinion, it's going to close down quite a few of the community playgroups because the parents who are not social welfare recipients are being asked to bear the extra cost of running them and they'll simply not be able to do it," Mr McDaid told the Derry Journal.
The funding changes mean parents in receipt of social welfare will receive a €80 weekly subvention for full daycare, while parents in receipt of the family income supplement will receive a €30 weekly subvention.
