What the budget means for childcare: ‘You don’t want to play down the importance of any increase in funding’

Louise Kilbane runs three Lollipop Lane day care and early learning centres in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, and Kiltimagh, Co Mayo. She has been involved in the sector for 20 years and lectures in early childhood education and care at ATU Mayo.

“When it comes to childcare it’s often the case that the devil is in the detail and it might take a little while for us to familiarise ourselves with the finer points of what was announced on Tuesday.

“My initial response is that you don’t want to play down the importance of any increase in funding because some of the savings here will be very real for parents.

“The range of supports under the National Childcare Scheme after this will be from around €5,000 up to €11,500 and those sorts of sums will have an enormous impact for a great many families.

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“But still there’s a sense of disappointment that the Minister hasn’t gone far enough. What a lot of us in the sector have been talking about is getting to €4 billion in funding by 2028, but here we are after Budget 2024 and we are at €1.1 billion.

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“That said, I would have to say there are some positives here. It’s really good to see funding provided to the access and equality scheme which provides supports to thousands of children with disabilities, but it is going to be interesting how any expansion will be managed.

“Similarly, there is to be an increase in core funding [the money provided directly to providers to help with the cost of running their businesses] with some of that to go to improving pay, but there is no breakdown on that. I’m curious as how the money will be divided up.

“There is potentially good news for the sector from elsewhere, though. Paschal Donohoe announced new supports for small business and I would hope that providers will be eligible for those ... we have been for similar schemes in the past. And I would certainly welcome the supports for those returning to college as it will really help people looking to upskill.”