Stretched: The Cost Of Childcare – Today FM

This week we continue our Stretched series by looking at the cost of childcare in Ireland.

Parents all over the country are paying huge sums of money for creches as well as after-school and summer childcare.

Jenny Doyle, a mother of one, moved to Newbridge from Dublin two years ago. She has seen a huge difference there in childcare costs for her son: “The creche fees in Dublin were about €300 more than what we’re currently paying. We both work full-time so we have to put our child into creche.”

“Creche is great for his social skills and development and he’s excelling in all areas. The staff are brilliant – they just don’t get paid enough so they have to increase fees unfortunately.”

Jenny says that if she had more than one child, she’d have to stay at home.

Dr. Sheila Garrity, lecturer in early childhood studies at NUIG, feels Jenny’s situation is very typical of many families in Ireland now.

“The basic reason for the high cost of childcare is because the state is investing so little in the early years of a family’s life. A family who can’t afford to have a second child is actually an economic issue for the state.”

She contrasts Ireland with Denmark, a country of a similar size and population, which “invests four times what we do in early childhood years.”

Teresa Heeney of Early Childhood Ireland points out that our childcare costs are higher than anywhere else in Europe: “Irish families are paying 35% of their average income on childcare. This is because historically we have very low levels of investment. In some way we think that early years is a private, family issue – we don’t see it as a societal issue.”

Childcare worker Deborah Reynolds spoke to us about the difficulties she and others in her profession face: “There’s a lot of people on minimum wage and they’re struggling. I’m currently on the dole because we’re not open during the summer.”

Listen back to the whole feature on the Today FM Website here