More than 100 mothers and childcare workers are to march on the Fianna Fáil constituency office in Finglas on Monday in protest over the axing of childcare funding for adult education students.
Students participating in back-to-education courses under the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) had been entitled to €63 weekly to pay for childcare in community crèches. The Finglas group is one of many around the State who were told last week that the grant was no longer available.
Some 5,000 adults attend VTOS courses run by the 32 Vocational Education Committees around the State. Two-thirds of them are women, mainly studying for their Junior and Leaving Certificates. State-wide, 1,338 students had been been in receipt of the allowance.
In Finglas, students had been due to start their courses this Monday. However, without access to childcare, many will now be unable to attend.
"I was relying on this money - I've no one else to mind my son," said Ms Rosaleen Hickey. "I'm going to have to find money from somewhere or I just won't be able to go." Ms Louise Byrne, who applied last March for her course and for a crèche place for her son, Adam (2), said: "I thought I was getting a second chance to have a better career. I don't want to have to go back on social welfare."
