Leaving your child with a childminder full-time now costs an average of €138.65 a week, up 7.5 per cent from last year but still less than the €160 for one week at a creche.
The new costs are part of the findings of a survey of childminders published by Childminding Ireland, a national organisation for home-based family childcare workers. The results were released this week to coincide with National Childminding Week, a celebration of the estimated 37,900 paid childminders who work in Ireland.
The survey found that 79 per cent of childminders are under the age of 45 and 77 per cent have children of their own. All respondents had participated in some kind of training, but many reported being overwhelmed by changing childminding-related legislation. "Keeping up can be quite difficult, but it's just about adapting to the changes, really," said Childminding Ireland spokeswoman Mary McGrath.
"We do feel that every childminder in Ireland should be registered and should be subject to some form of regulation, but it should be appropriate for the home setting."
Another issue raised by the survey was time off: 62 per cent of respondents reported not being paid for holidays. That contrasts with the situation in Britain, where only 10 per cent are not paid for holiday time because of a higher prevalence of contracts between childminders and parents.
More than half of the respondents worked over 40 hours a week and 28 per cent worked 50 or more hours.
Despite the tough schedule, membership of the organisation has climbed in recent years, a trend Ms McGrath attributes to an increased acceptance of the profession following last year's introduction of tax relief.
"The tax relief did a huge amount to bring childminders out into the open," she said. "They're not ashamed anymore or say 'I'm just a childminder'. They are proud and part of that is joining an organisation like ours."