Taoiseach Simon Harris has signalled that reform of Ireland’s childcare sector is set to form a major plank of his party’s general election manifesto and promised to detail how costs will fall while places will increase in the days ahead.
On Friday Mr Harris said he would make a reduction in childcare costs an urgent priority if returned to office following the impending election and promised to outline when and how costs are likely to fall before the end of his first 100 days in office.
Speaking at a Macra na Feirme event in Naas, Co Kildare, on Saturday he repeated his commitment to reform the sector and promised that no parent would have to pay more than €200 per child per month for care if his party was re-elected.
He said although some progress had been made on making childcare more affordable for parents, costs “are still too high for far too many”.
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While childcare costs have fallen by between 30 and 50 per cent in recent years, many families struggle to find places for their infant children with even greater challenges facing parents looking for after-school care once their children start in primary school.
Mr Harris said Fine Gael would “need to show people in the weeks ahead what the next steps look like” and he promised that the party’s election manifesto would “detail very clearly the journey we believe we can take on childcare”.
He said in addition to a commitment that parents should not have to pay more than €200 a month per child his party’s soon-to-be published election manifesto would detail further proposals “as to how I’d also like to reform the system”.
He noted that in “some areas of the country there’s a clear lack of provision [and] many parents say to me that it is great to reduce the fees but [they] can’t get a place”.
He told reporters that two years of free preschool that are now available under the so called ECCE scheme have “been transformational” but added he is mindful of the fact that not every child is able to avail of it and “there could be issues around access underpinning it”.
He suggested that when building new primary schools “surely it makes sense to build new childcare facilities beside them” and stressed that while “the fees element is one part of the proposal and a very significant part for parents in a cost-of-living crisis it is just one part and we’ll be detailing more reforms that I want to see on childcare.”
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