Struggling to find childcare before your maternity leave runs out? You are not alone.
So, what’s behind the long childcare waiting lists for young children and what needs to be done to fix it.
First let’s bust two myths.
The shortage is not caused by childcare facilities closing down as a result the fees freeze for parents or other problems with the State’s core funding rules. The number of closures has halved in five years.
Nor is it because of our rapid growth in population. We have had a 20% drop in births in 10 years.
What is driving the demand for childcare is more women in the workforce.
Female employment has more than doubled since the turn of the century. There are over 100,000 more women of childbearing age (15-44) in employment in the last five years alone. The employment participant rate among older women is also on the rise, meaning granny is unlikely to be available to step in to provide childcare even if you are lucky to be able to afford to live nearby.
The second reason for the shortage of places for babies and toddlers is the profit motive in childcare.
Ireland is unusual in Europe in having to rely exclusively on the private market to provide childcare services. We have no public childcare services. Zilch. What we have is a publicly subsidised, privately delivered childcare model. Three-quarters of all childcare services are for-profit businesses. The other quarter is not-for-profit community and voluntary services, mostly operating in areas of disadvantage.
Because the required staff to child ratio is higher for babies (1:3) and toddlers (1:5), there is less money to be made than providing places for older children.
While the cost of childcare was a hot topic in the general election, so too was the demand for public childcare, and commitments were subsequently given in the programme for government.
Childcare must be recognised as part of the vital infrastructure needed for a functioning economy.
Unfortunately, the omens are not good. If we look at the recently revised National Development Plan, which sets out how the government will invest in the country’s infrastructure and development, childcare is mentioned only three times, twice in the introductory comments from minsters. Whereas addressing the shortage in the supply of housing is mentioned 32 times, water 29, transport 26 and energy 25.
Working parents must wait for the Department of Children’s plan to build or purchase state-led childcare facilities to create additional capacity. Work on the plan is under way. Meanwhile, childcare waiting lists continue to grow.
Dr Laura Bambrick, Social Policy and Employment Affairs Officer
