Sinn Féin spokesperson for Children, Integration, Equality and Youth, Claire Kerrane TD, has said that urgent action is needed by Minister Roderic O’Gorman to address ‘severe capacity issues’ in Childcare.

Figures from the Pobal Survey on Early Years highlighted by Early Childhood Ireland today show thousands of children are on long waiting lists to access Early Years and School Age Care settings.

Teachta Kerrane said:

“The figures highlighted today by Early Childhood Ireland are hugely concerning, as thousands of children across the state are left waiting to access Early Years and School Age care.

“This shows a major lack of planning on behalf of the government, which should have been preparing to meet demand with much-needed childcare places across the state.

“For many parents, they are being left lingering on waiting lists in childcare facilities that they haven’t a hope of accessing because the places are simply not there. These figures show this stark reality.

“In recent years, a number of Rooms, particularly Infant Rooms in childcare facilities have been closed due to a lack of staffing. Childcare providers have in some cases the physical space but they cannot staff the room in order to provide childcare spaces, and so they are forced to close the room and the places.

“If we want the spaces to meet need, we need to pay Early Years Educators to keep them in the sector. Too many are on low pay despite being highly qualified and with years of experience. Sinn Féin supports the SIPTU call for wages to increase to €15 an hour (as a minimum) but we also need to go beyond this to get to improved pay and terms of conditions for these professionals.

“If we do not treat Early Years Educators in the Sector as they deserve to be treated and retain them, we will see less and less childcare places being available.

“We also need to urgently build capacity in the sector and we need to be innovative so for example where a childcare setting is to close, the Department needs to have a specific plan to step in and consider taking over a service and running it as a community service.

“We also need to look at using vacant or underused buildings such as Community Centres as childcare facilities based in the community, these buildings exist in many cases and should be used rather than the need for planning permission and starting from scratch in every instance. This takes too long. There are very successful social enterprise models of this already existing, including two very successful community facilities in County Donegal.

“We also need to see an obligation on all new medium-large scale planning developments for housing including a condition that creche facilities be developed on site, where demand exists.

“We also need to accelerate plans to bring Childminders into the National Childcare Scheme to allow parents avail of the subsidies where they choose Childminders. At the moment, they are forced to use formal childcare settings, we need to strike a balance for Childminders, being careful not to over-regulate but make them a viable option for parents who want to use Childminders, as many do.

“I am calling on Minister O’Gorman to consider these immediate measures that can be taken to build urgent capacity for children and for working parents.”