“The rent at one of my locations just went up by 50 per cent,” says Bronagh Mooney, owner of three Creative Kids childcare facilities in the south Dublin city area as she outlines the challenges of operating in the sector. “The school where we’re based said they had lost a Covid cleaning grant and needed to make the money up so they looked to me.
“I completely understand where they’re coming from, to be fair, and I’d say they have big corporate firms offering them more each year to take over the space but it’s still hard when it happens. A lot of costs are going up.”
Ms Mooney was speaking at a protest on Thursday outside the Dáil where representatives of organisations affiliated to Together for Public, a group supporting public provision of childcare that included the National Women’s Council (NWC) and about 40 other organisations called for the Government to start indicating how they are going to deliver on some of the big ambitions they outlined for it during the election campaign.
“We’re 100 days into the new government and we feel the Government should at least have outlined an action plan for the implementation of their commitments in the programme for government,” said NWC director Orla O’Connor.
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“They’ve committed to the reduction of fees to €200 per month, to start to roll out public places and to start addressing staff shortages in the sector, so they should at the very least be coming forward with an action plan but we have 40,000 children on waiting lists from nought to four years of age, women who are finishing their maternity leave and are really stressed they can’t find a place for their child and families still paying huge fees and the Government has gone very quiet,” she said.
Wages are key issue when it comes to addressing staff shortages and yet talks on a new pay deal are proving difficult with trade union Siptu saying employer groups are resisting the establishment of the €15 an hour floor everybody tends to say they actually support.
“I’ve a 19-year-old who could go and work in Dunnes right now for more than the €13.65 base rate working in childcare,” said Ms Mooney, “but we have people going to college to get qualifications and that’s what they’re earning,
“The Government has made money available to improve the wages,” she said, “but they we have people saying it can’t be done and that money doesn’t actually get through to people like me. I’d like to see the Government just pay the wages, then I think we’d see real improvements in the sector.”
Creative Kids pay above the minimum rates and is, unusually in the sector, fully staffed with more than 40 employees, many of them women who work part-time.
Her manager, Valerie Gaynor, who was also on the protest, is a member of the Siptu negotiating team in the current talks and said the profits at the big corporate providers show there is money to be made in the sector but challenges persist for smaller operators and staff struggle to be paid what they are worth.
“We do respect the people who are in the business to make money but educators also deserve to be paid a fair wage for the work they do every day,” she said.
Former Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said he had come around to the argument that a public system was required during his time in government and “it was a key part of the Green Party manifesto”.
“But then it was actually a key part of most parties’ manifestos and I was really shocked to see the extent to which the Government parties retreated from that.
“I think that’s why there is a real sense of frustration now among the trade unions, women’s organisations and others interested in ensuring we do the best for our children.”
