Sinn Féin spokesperson on Children, Integration, Equality and Youth, Claire Kerrane TD, has said that Budget 2025 has “blatantly ignored” the growing crisis in the childcare sector, such as the extortionate fees parents have to pay, as well as the lack of capacity and pay for Early Years Educators.
Teachta Kerrane said:
“The government has blatantly ignored the ongoing crisis in the childcare sector in Budget 2025. While they consistently say that they have cut childcare fees in half, we know that in many cases, parents are paying anything up to €1,500 a month for childcare. This is extortionate.
“Minister O’Gorman has decided to continue implementing the National Childcare Scheme as planned without the radical changes needed to bring childcare costs down as Sinn Féin showed in delivering childcare for €10 a day. This is the level of intervention needed to bring down costs once and for all.
“Minister O’Gorman has also failed to address the capacity issues in the childcare sector at a time when we have over 33,000 children on waiting lists for places that do not exist.
“The crisis in the recruitment and retention of Early Years Educators is ignored in the Budget. The funding set aside in this Budget relies on further Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) by the Early Years Services Joint Labour Committee – this is not good enough.
“We know that this is not a solid promise to increase wages. We know that the process of obtaining an ERO takes time and we know that the last pay increase for Early Years Educators was 65 cent and took 14 months to get. Early Years Educators needed an hourly increase of €1.50 in this Budget, as Sinn Féin committed to in our Alternative Budget.
“Budget 2025 will give no hope or certainty to Early Years Educators and will play no role in retaining them.
“After all the recent talk from government, including the Taoiseach, on childcare, this Budget goes no-where near far enough on the key issues – affordability, building capacity urgently, and proper pay for our Early Years Educators.”
