Kealy highlights lack of support for childcare sector as election issue
SOME early childcare providers are on the verge of going out of business due to the soaring cost of insurance premiums and the failure of the government to adequately support them, Becky Kealy, Aontú election candidate in Cork North West, has claimed.
The Aontú representative said she had been contacted by a number of providers with ‘real and genuine concerns’ for the ongoing sustainability of the sector.
Yesterday in Dublin, childcare providers gathered at the gates of Leinster House to protest at what they regard as the inadequate response from the Government following the withdrawal of a major insurance provider from Ireland just before Christmas and the subsequent hike in insurance premiums for many in the sector.
When the Childrens’ Minister Katherine Zappone announced just before Christmas that childcare providers would get an average additional €1500 to help meet the costs of additional registration requirements, childcare providers were relieved.
The relief was shortlived as some providers got very little from that allocation, as little as €76 in some cases.
“This protest is to highlight the impending crisis in Irish childcare provision and to demand a sustainable solution to this growing problem. These professionals say they will go to the wall, close up their business and where will that leave early childhood care in this country.
“Several Cork based providers have spoken to me and they are stressed to the hilt and at breaking point”.
“The situation for them is dire with some providers being forced to subsidise the real cost of a top quality service through low wages for staff and high fees for parents; these are educators who provide a top class service which is becoming more and more unsustainable.”
Candidate Kealy listed the concerns of the providers and said their main cause of worry i is the low level of subsidies given to childcare providers in the form of the ECCE grant, which amounts to just €4.60 per child per hour, or €64.50 for an entire week.
Combined with the recent hikes in public liability insurance, providers are coming under severe financial pressure as a result.
“Worryingly, it appears that childcare workers are taking the brunt of underinvestment in the childcare sector in the form of low wages: the average wage in the sector is €11.46 per hour.”
Ms Kealy said her party was committed in the Aontú manifesto to ensuring all employees, including childcare workers receive a living wage.
Because government support for childcare provision mirrors the school term, childcare workers have to sign on during ‘ holiday’ time as they’re not paid.
“In addition, in Government Aontú will see to it that childcare providers are properly funded for the valuable work that they perform on behalf of society, so that high standards in the sector may be maintained and not be allowed to suffer through neglect, financial or otherwise”.