I HAD TO SHUT... THE FUNDING WAS TOO LOW
‘It was heartbreaking’
THE owner of a preschool facility who has been forced to close her business for good said the industry was already ‘on its knees’ before the Covid-19 pandemic. Erica Conaty, owner of Manor Montessori in Navan, Co. Meath, said she could not reopen as she did not know the amount of State funding she would be entitled to, and when she would get access to it. Although her landlord did not charge her rent during the closure, she said she could not take the risk of another possible lockdown. ‘We were all on our knees before all this happened,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.
‘The problem we had is, the funding was so low, that I’d been taking money out of my own pocket and my husband has been very, very supportive and he’s been giving me money as well to keep the pre-school going because the Government funding for the ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme) scheme has not been enough to make sure I have a quality service for the children and to comply with the regulations.’
This would have been Ms Conaty’s fourth year in business, and she has been in the industry for more than a decade. However, she said that she could not continue to operate with the funding being offered by the Government.
‘You can’t comply with every regulation on a shoestring budget, which is why I had to take money from my own pocket to accommodate the fact I need to be fully compliant,’ she said.
Ms Conaty employed four people, and her facility catered to 22 children. ‘It is very hard because then I had to go tell all of them... it was heartbreaking.’