In praise of childminders despite the lack of joined up thinking
IHAD my eyes opened at the weekend talking to a friend who is a parent paying over one thousand euros a month on childcare. A simple, positive decision to return to work has meant she and her husband are now faced with a new mortgage effectively in the form of a monthly childcare bill.
For parents of two or more children the choice is taken out of their hands, very often, and they have to give up their career, at least temporarily.
Another parent I know, who chose to be a stay-at-home mother, was lamenting the fact that she has been held back by not going out into the workforce. She had taken on other children to mind part-time during the school year and saved on childcare, but at a severe cost to her CV in the career she wanted to pursue.
I know another friend who can only work a handful of hours per week, otherwise she is in danger of losing out on Social Welfare payments which make it possible for her to mind her daughter, part of which involves paying a fortune a month in childcare. The non policy approach of the Government has left a generation of parents on the brink of poverty and financial ruin. We’ve already spoken about the Granny Grant, which was a joke that should never have made it into print.
A survey released earlier this month by Newstalk highlighted how the monthly cost of childcare per child hovers around the €1,000 in the Dublin commuter belt, falling to around €650 in parts of rural Ireland. Wicklow parents are paying €1,000 a month on average, compared with €756 in County Wexford. While Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has admitted that parents pay too much for childcare, there have been no steps whatsoever to ease the burden on working parents in this country. The lucky few thousand have a parent who will help, but this approach can be problematic as reimbursement can be a Mrs Doyle like Herculean effort. ‘G’wan! G’wan! G’wan!’, only to be rebuffed. Like wedding gift lists, child-minding Granny gift lists often have to be dreamed up.
Minister Zappone acknowledges that there has been under-investment in the childcare sector, which has seen costs of childcare rise steadily over recent years nationally. This past week my daughter (Aka The Whirlwind Princess) and son (the former Little Fella who is now a little giant), finished up at their creche. They were looked after brilliantly since they were ten months old and now are moving on to after-school.
Like thousands of children they deserve excellent childcare, but the sector is so problematic it is hard to see where the Government stands. Hinting at subsidisation of the costs for childcare, Ms Zappone said she is meeting Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe this week, adding the Newstalk report ‘really supports my call’.
She said there will be increases to providers from next month, which were announced in Budget 2018. ‘My preferred model is a model that is really based on international evidence, and that is the one that we’re pursuing. If you have a mixture of private and non-profit providers, the best way is for us as a Government to provide subsidisation to the costs that the providers offer to the parents.’
In Denmark working parents pay 25 per cent of the cost of childcare and unemployed parents pay between zero and 25 per cent depending on their circumstances. Ms Zappone, support parents and make that call to Pascal!