UPDATED:
The
Government has been urged to invest properly in the childcare sector as a
national protest march is planned in Dublin to highlight what organisers
describe as chronic underfunding. Together for Early Years has planned
a march to the Dáil to demand a sustainable solution to what it said
is a childcare crisis.
Speaking
on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, one of the protest organisers, Mick Kenny,
said the burden of providing childcare is being put on the shoulders of
childcare providers and educators, as well as parents and families and
that underfunding in the sector has resulted in a staffing crisis.
He
said staff cannot afford to live on their wages and while service providers
want to pay staff more, they are caught in a balancing act of trying to
keep services open, while also avoiding raising fees for parents.
Mick Kenny said childcare staff
cannot afford to live on their wages
The Government has been urged to
invest properly in the childcare sector as a national protest march is planned
in Dublin to highlight what organisers describe as chronic underfunding.
Together for Early Years has planned
a march to the Dáil to demand a sustainable solution to what it said
is a childcare crisis.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland,
one of the protest organisers, Mick Kenny, said the burden of providing
childcare is being put on the shoulders of childcare providers and educators,
as well as parents and families and that underfunding in the sector has
resulted in a staffing crisis.
He said staff cannot afford to live
on their wages and while service providers want to pay staff more, they
are caught in a balancing act of trying to keep services open, while also
avoiding raising fees for parents.
He added that many services are
unsustainable, and Irish parents continue to pay the second highest childcare
fees in Europe.
Around 40% of childcare
providers will be closed today as part of the national protest.
Mr Kenny said nearly 1,800
childcare services are registered to attend the protest, which, he
said, is supported by parents.
He said: "Another big issue at
the moment is the staffing crisis.
"Apart from unsustainability
where we are seeing services shutting around the country, services are also
having to close rooms because they literally cannot get the early years staff
because of the chronic underfunding coming into the sector.
"Basically, staff can't
afford to live on the wages that centres can pay them."
He
added that many services are unsustainable, and Irish parents
continue to pay the second highest childcare fees in Europe.
Around
40% of childcare providers will be closed today as part of the national protest.
Mr
Kenny said nearly 1,800 childcare services are registered to attend
the protest, which, he said, is supported by parents.
He
said: "Another big issue at the moment is the staffing crisis.
"Apart
from unsustainability where we are seeing services shutting around the country,
services are also having to close rooms because they literally cannot get the
early years staff because of the chronic underfunding coming into the sector.
"Basically, staff
can't afford to live on the wages that centres can pay them."
NEWS UPDATE:
Thousands of early
childcare providers, educators, and parents took part in a protest in
Dublin city centre calling for greater government investments in the sector.
Protesters
called on the next government to increase funding in order to reduce fees
for parents, increase pay for educators and support the sustainability of
services, which they say are in crisis.
Chairperson of the
Association of Childhood Professionals Marian Quinn said: "We are at
breaking point and can't continue subsidising the true cost of early childhood
education and care by virtue of our low wages.
"We have to
be able to afford our own lives. The government has to accept their
responsibility and radically change the funding model for this public
service."
SIPTU Head of
Strategic Organising and Campaigns Darragh O'Connor described the current
situation as "a real crisis in childcare".
"More than 60% of
educators earn less than the living wage of €12.30 per hour and parents are
paying some of the highest fees in Europe," Mr O'Connor added.
Protesters are
demanding the doubling of funding for services, the introduction of a living
wage of €12.30 per hour for early years educators, and a new improved funding
model.
They also want the
current system of inspections, which are carried out by four separate bodies,
to be replaced by one streamlined body, and for compliance to be graded.
They say they also
want to be involved in designing a new approach to childcare.
Organisers say 1,800
of around 4,200 early childcare service providers registered to take part
in the protest.
It was organised
by Together for Early Years, an umbrella group of the Association of Childhood
Professionals, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, the National
Community Childcare Forum, the National Childhood Network, Seas Suas and SIPTU.
Separately, up to 150
childcare providers, staff and parents have taken part in a protest in
Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
The protest calling
for greater investment in early years childcare services took place outside the
Donegal County Childcare Committee offices in the town to coincide with the
national protest in Dublin.
People, the vast
majority women, who could not travel to Dublin, made their position clear
in calling for funding for private and community childcare services
that they say are vital, but in danger of closing down from lack of State
support.
Staff 'cannot afford
to live on their wages'
Speaking on RTÉ's
Morning Ireland, one of the Dublin protest organisers, Mick Kenny,
said the burden of providing childcare is being put on the shoulders of
childcare providers and educators, as well as parents and families, and
that underfunding in the sector has resulted in a staffing crisis.
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