A CASTLECONNELL childcare facility, which looks after 100 plus children, took the tough and expensive decision to close it’s doors last week in protest over the lack of support and recognition for the sector.
Anne McNamara, owner of the Sunny Lane crèche in Castleconnell, closed up shop for three days last week and staged a protest, which was supported by parents, in conjunction with a day of action organised countrywide by the Federation of Early Childhood Providers.
“I’m down €6,000 for my staff bill and loss of parental income, and there was such inconvenience to parents, who were very supportive but I felt we just had to do this,” Anne told the Limerick Post.
Anne’s 23 staff are all paid above the minimum wage, which she says “they absolutely deserve”, but the Early Childhood Care and Education subvention to the service hasn’t been raised in more than five years and causes so much paperwork that the crèche owner says she struggles to be hands on in her own business.
“Parents have never had such low rates for childcare and I applaud Minister O’Gorman for that but have had no raise in the subvention, which barely covers my tax bill every month.”
In addition, her premises are now inspected on a regular basis by both Tusla and the Department of Education, “and they both want different things at different times”.
“The amount of paper work is burying us. Last week a child fell on her way out. She didn’t injure herself and we rushed to comfort her and get chocolate – if I stuck rigidly to the red tape, I would have gone and got an accident report form before I even gave the child a hug.”
“Since Roderic O’Gorman introduced the core funding model, our paperwork has quadrupled. We nearly need to be accountants rather than childcare providers. We are under severe pressure with our admin needs.
“I was very saddened by the lack of support from our local representatives. Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Clare were all supported by their local politicians but Limerick was extremely poor,” Anne added.
Anne says facilities like hers are “fighting for our services to stay open and stay viable”.
“We are all at rock bottom and people will just decide to close up shop and do something with better pay and far less responsibility.”
Childcare services are demanding “to be recognised as an essential service,” she says. “We want to be recognised as educators. We want respect and we want the ECCE rate increased.”
“Parental fees are at an all-time low. This is amazing for our parents, however we are in a pay freeze and this has to be lifted before our businesses are not viable any more.”
