A Eurostat report has found that at over €750 a month, Irish crèche fees are among the top five highest in Europe.
The average childcare cost for children less than one-year-old currently stands at €756 a month, and for older children €727 a month – and these excessive fees do not guarantee that crèche employees are highly qualified. Ireland and Slovakia are the only two European countries where childcare workers are not required to have minimum qualifications.
Ciairin de Buis, director of the Start Strong - a group of organisations advocating for high quality care and education for all young children in Ireland - said that the childcare industry needs more public funding: “It's not sustainable for parents to keep funding the amounts they're paying. Childcare services here are very mixed as regards quality and we need proper public investment to improve things on this level."
The Department of Children have said that new qualification requirements for the pre-school childcare sector will be brought in this year.
