FINE Gael 2024 Local Election candidate for City West, Michael MacCurtain, is calling on his colleagues in Government to allocate additional support for early childhood care providers in this week’s Budget.
MacCurtain, a new father to a little girl, says parents are struggling to secure childcare places across the city and county.
Places for babies under one year old, he maintains, are particularly hard to find, with some parents having to consider taking longer maternity/paternity leave.
“New parents are struggling to locate suitable childcare as baby rooms are full. Strict ratios mean that for every three children there needs to be one adult supervising. This means that for many childcare settings, it is not financially viable to keep a baby room,” he explained.
Michael, who is currently working in Limerick Chamber as the manager of Skillnet, went on to point out that this will have a knock-on effect for working parents who will have to rely on family support or unlicensed child minders or take a reduction in income by extending their leave into unpaid maternity leave or parental leave.
He is now calling on the Government to allocate additional support for early childhood providers in next week’s budget.
“Childcare is an essential service and those that work in this sector do trojan work. We need to start treating those involved in childcare provision with the respect they deserve by allocating additional funding to help them with staffing, continuous professional development, and additional resources for children,” the Ballinacurra man added.
According to Anne Delaney, manager of Limerick Childcare Committee, the current lack of supply is complex and has been building for a number of years.
“Without the staff, services cannot provide the places and because of the staffing ratio for under 1s of one adult to three children, it is often the first service to be cut when there is a shortage of staff in services,” Ms Delaney explained.
“The reason there is a shortage is basically down to relatively poor pay and conditions resulting in low numbers entering the sector and many leaving the sector for better opportunities.
“We’ve heard lots of stories of staff leaving to work in supermarket chains – better pay, better career opportunities, and much less responsibility,” she concluded.
