Creche closures rise despite €1bn funds
New f igures back concern over ‘f light of early childcare providers’
THE Government has been urged to respond to a ‘flight of early childcare providers’ as new figures reveal a worrying rise of creche closures this year.
Statistics confirmed by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman show 113 early childcare providers closed in the eight months to the end of August. This is almost three and a half times higher than the 33 new providers who registered as Early Learning Centres (ELC) this year.
During the same period last year, 106 early childcare providers shuttered compared to 44 new registrations.
Earlier this year, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed how almost 800 creches closed their doors in the past five years up to the end of 2021 amid claims the childcare crisis is increasingly forcing mothers from ‘work to welfare’.
In the Budget, Minister O’Gorman announced a €1billion package of supports for the sector but providers say this new funding favours larger providers, and that many smaller rural-based creches are no longer financially viable.
Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan, who obtained the latest figures in response to parliamentary queries on the matter, told
‘The minister is being over-confident’
the MoS: ‘The Government needs to respond swiftly to what looks like a flight of early childcare providers. People do not leave an industry that is viable. So when people are departing in a ratio of three to one, then there is a problem.’
Figures supplied to the Cork TD also confirm a significant number of providers have dropped out of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme for the 2022/2023 programme.
Minister O’Gorman said data from the State agency Pobal, the administrators of the ECCE programme, confirms 304 early childcare providers who registered in 2021 have not signed up for 2022/2023. He added that, ‘from this cohort, Pobal are aware that 84 services are open, 92 services are fully closed and 128 closed due to a change of circumstance’.
The minister stressed: ‘It is normal for some ECCE services to close every year and services close for many reasons.’
However, Mr O’Sullivan said these figures represent ‘a second serious warning’ to the Government. The Fianna Fáil TD told the MoS: ‘The minister appears to think it is normal for some ECCE services to close every year and that services close for many reasons. The minister is being, to put it mildly, over-confident.
‘It is also a matter of the gravest concern that as demand increases more providers of services are leaving than staying.’
He added: ‘My concern is that hard-working parents will be the biggest casualties here. Early Learning Centres and ECCE offer critical resources for first-time parents, many of whom are forced to have two jobs and even at that are struggling.’
Creche owners say the Government’s new €221m core funding scheme discriminates against small operators and those providing only the ECCE programme because it only offers incentives to those who offer a full-time programme. Last week up to 500 ECCE providers closed in protest over a lack of funding, with crowds demonstrating outside the Dáil. Responding to the latest figures, Elaine Dunne, the chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers (FECP), said she was not surprised. ‘And let me tell you,’ she told the MoS, ‘next year it will be six times as many [closing compared to new registrations]. A lot of small services just can’t afford to stay open thanks to this new core funding scheme. It is squeezing our members out of business. That’s why we protested last week and that’s why we’ll continue to protest’.
In response to queries from the MoS, a spokesperson for Minister O’Gorman said the department provides funding ‘under the Educational Care and Education (ECCE) programme, the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Saver (CCSP) programme as well as Core Funding’.