800 creches close in five years as crisis out of control
ALMOST 800 creches have closed their doors over the past five years as the deepening childcare crisis increasingly forces mothers from ‘work to welfare’, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The growing shortage of preschool providers is affecting young families in rural areas, many of whom are just about able to manage the huge costs but can no longer access childcare. The scale of the creche closures emerged as the Government’s plans to subsidise the sector were this weekend described as being ‘systematically flawed’ and out of step with rampant inflation.
‘We are going to see mass closures’
Figures from the State family and child agency Tusla, in response to parliamentary queries from Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, reveal 789 providers have closed since 2017.
The highest number of closures was recorded during the first wave of Covid-19 infections in 2020, when 197 creches shut down.
But the figures were almost equally high the previous year, when 196 providers closed.
Despite successive governments’ promises to ‘prioritise’ childcare, the figures have been rising consistently since 2017 when 117 creches closed.
This rose to 138 in 2018, while a further 141 closed last year.
There are 4,700 childcare providers, but industry leaders say many of these will also go under unless the Government significantly revises its estimates to subsidise the sector.
Under the plan announced by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman, day-care centres will be given €69 per child every week to help cover the cost of early learning courses.
However, operators claim this will need to be bumped up by almost a third to €100 due to rising costs from soaring inflation and the Ukraine war
Elaine Dunne, chairwoman of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, which represents up to 1,500 services and provides early learning courses to 90,000 children daily, told the MoS: ‘Twenty-one of our members are saying they are going to close because they are saying it won’t be viable for them to stay open with the core funding that is being offered.
‘Their accountants are telling them the core funding won’t work so they’re making decisions now to close their doors and there’ll be a lot more following unless something changes here.
‘If there aren’t any changes, then we’re going to see mass closures. I think hundreds will close.’
According to Mr Tóibín, the near-800 closures ‘is real evidence of the unsustainability of the sector’, which he says arises from ‘decades of mismanagement by minister after minister’.
The Meath West TD told the MoS: ‘Regardless of who seems to be the minister, the childcare sector in this country is perpetually in crisis.
‘For working people, the cost of childcare services is the equivalent to second mortgages, while providers are underfunded to the point of ruin.’
The Coalition has committed to introduce affordable childcare and last December, 18 months into office, accepted the recommendations of an expert group to develop a new funding model for early learning and childcare.