Even during the boom the high price of childcare was a talking point among parents – how is the sector adapting now that parents are under increasing financial pressures?
THE National Consumer Agency this month published a survey that found childcare costs can differ by almost €5,000 a year within the same area. The average price across all regions for a six-month-old baby was €191 a week, ranging from €155 a week in Sligo and Waterford to €233 in Swords, Co Dublin.
The cost of childcare in Ireland has always been high. During the boom, even for families with two salaries, the cost remained a talking point. Now, in a recession where many people in paid employment have taken a pay cut, how is the childcare sector adapting to that fact?
Louise Kilbane runs Lollipop creche in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, which has a capacity of 64. She opened in 2007, in a purpose-built creche she bought off plans, as part of a housing development. “I know the building has devalued since we bought it – it’ll never go back to the price I paid for it.”
Lollipop was the first purpose-built facility in the area. “We have a 20-mile catchment area. I could have people travelling from Charlestown, 10 miles away, and I’ve had someone coming from 20 miles away who works in Sligo. When we opened, parents were working all the hours that were sent and they didn’t care what they paid for childcare.”
Her fees range from €80 to €160 a week, depending on the age of the child. “In July 2008 I noticed a massive drop in the number of children coming, and had to put all my staff on a three-day week, although I was later able to bring them back full time. I have reduced fees. Parents have moved children because another creche can offer a cheaper price – they’ve told me this.” The key reason children leave the creche is a parent losing a job. “I’ve seen them drop the child off in the morning and come back in the evening and tell me they’ve lost their job.”
SAFARI CHILDCARE has three creches – at Swords, Kilmainham, and near Heuston – established in 2008 and 2009, with a capacity for 195 children.
Cian Powell, Safari co-director, says: “We are not only full, we have a waiting list for about 27 per cent of our places across all three. I put that down to the fact we have kept our pricing at a competitive level. We decided we weren’t going to be greedy – there are a lot of greedy operators out there, in my opinion.”
Safari charge €1,050 for a baby up to one year, and €850 for a preschool child. “Money is a big factor in parents’ concerns, but we also find parents are very focused on staff turnover. They don’t like inconsistency with staff.”
Parents pay for the weeks their children are not at Safari. “If you want to keep your place with us, you have to pay for it. It’s a bit like a restaurant: if you want to keep sitting at your table, you have to pay for it, otherwise that space will be sold to someone else.”
Regina Bushell runs five creches under the name Grovelands in the midlands – three in Athlone, one in Mullingar and one in Tullamore, with a capacity for 400 children. She has been in the business 35 years, starting out in her own house in Athlone.
“The creches are purpose-built, and we have had to negotiate with the banks to get through some very difficult years. We had to cut staff and cut hours of some staff who stayed. I have 70 staff, with a mix of full- and part-time. Babies of three months up to two years are €194 a week, and preschool €161. Our fees haven’t gone up in three years.” Parents pay one month in advance. “If they can’t pay for the full month up front, we make arrangements to set up weekly direct debits.”
Martina Murphy is director of operations at Bright Horizons, which has 10 creches – two in Co Meath and eight in Co Dublin, with a capacity of 850. “Up to 2006 the demand outstripped the supply of places. We had waiting lists, and a huge imbalance between demand and supply in all our creches. From 2008 we began to see a decline. The bottom line is, once people lose their jobs they don’t need to pay for childcare.”
At one point there were 23 nationalities in their creches. The cost of a baby per month is €1,113, and for a preschool child is €1,024.
“We would have held our fees and not dropped them. You’re still paying staff – you need to maintain the ratios of staff to children – and you still have fixed overhead costs.”
In common with the other creche providers, Murphy points out that government fees in the form of commercial rates are “a huge factor in our sector. We are not like a shop, selling a product that you can replace as it is sold. We can only take a set number of children and no more per day.”
Since it was implemented in January 2010, the ECCE childcare scheme has enabled parents to avail of a free childcare space for each preschool child. This has been broadly welcomed by parents. However, the owner of one Montessori school in Dublin considers the scheme is “ruining the experience children should have in a Montessori”.
She has run a 20-place Montessori for over 20 years, and until last January had many more children on her waiting list than she could accommodate. Her weekly fee was €100, and the children who came to her all attended for two years. She did not sign up to the ECCE scheme, which is voluntary. “But I am going to have to sign up for autumn, because every call I’m getting is from parents who want to avail of the free place.”
All of the children she’s being asked to take are preschool, coming up to age four. She points out that for the full benefit of Montessori, children should attend for two years, so the younger children can enjoy a rich learning experience. “When the children are all the same age, it dilutes the experience. I could cry when I think about it. You can’t argue with parents wanting to take up a free space, but people don’t realise it’s coming at a cost to the quality of the education.”
Parents' views: How content are they with childcare?
Up to 2006 the demand outstripped the supply of places. From 2008 we began to see a decline. The bottom line is, once people lose their jobs they don’t need to pay for childcare
Aisling Martin-Sullivan’s son is 10 months old and has been in two different creches since he was five months old
We moved house from Dublin, and he’s now in a creche in Naas. The hours in Kildare are better than Dublin. We both work in Dublin, and he’s in the creche from 7.30am to 6.30pm. We pay €870 a month. When the creche in Dublin heard we were taking him out they offered a discount of €80, but we were moving anyway.
We moved at Christmas, so were able to avoid paying over the holidays. I don’t think it’s fair to pay for time he’s not there. There are plenty of creche places everywhere. If there was a waiting list, I could understand there being a payment for when you’re on holiday. I don’t think it’s fair. Besides, creches have lots of notice about your holiday time. There should be more tax incentives for parents for childcare. For us, paying creche fees is like having a second mortgage.
Simon Fuller has two children, aged five and three, in a creche in Sallins, Co Kildare. The five-year-old is now attending school part of the day
We pay €960 a month in total for both of them, and we’re really happy. I haven’t noticed fees coming down, and we haven’t asked. When we chose the creche, location came first, although price did come into it. We pay fees year-round. I think that’s only fair, because you’re keeping the place open. We have friends in Dublin who have children the same age and who are paying almost double what we’re paying.
Cathy Gerrard’s daughter is four, and has been in a creche in Dublin since she was six months old
We changed creche once, when we moved house. When choosing, location was top of the list – being close to home. I’ve had a pay cut, as has my husband, and the creche fees have gone up, not down – there’s now an extra cost of providing a hot meal each day. We pay €850 a month, and our daughter is there from about 9am to 5 or 6pm. We’re really happy with her creche, which has about 30 children. We pay by standing order each year, which also covers the two weeks the creche is closed for holidays. It’s a large chunk out of a salary, especially if you are a single parent or have more than one child.
Another Dublin-based parent, who didn’t wish to be named, said that their creche recently held a fund-raiser to provide a child-friendly surface for their outdoor playground space
We all went along with it, but I wonder how appropriate that was.
It would be different if it was a school that was fund-raising for the same thing, but this is a privately owned, commercially run business that we were being asked to contribute to.
