€10 A DAY CHILDCARE FOR ALL
02. Affordability
Affordable. Essential. Deliverable.
Affordability
Parents in Ireland pay among the highest costs for Childcare in the OECD. Childcare encompasses Early Childhood Care and Education, School Age Childcare and Childminding. Despite some improvements, parents are still paying hundreds and in some cases thousands of euros every month for childcare. This is not sustainable for parents and families, especially in the current cost of living crisis.
High childcare costs have been shown to present several challenges to both children and parents. They create a barrier to using formal childcare, with parents forced to rely on friends and family instead. They also create a barrier to female labour market participation and to improving child poverty rates.
Research for Ireland has shown that the challenges created by unaffordable childcare are more severe for lower income families and lone parents, particularly with regard to paid maternal employment.
Following sustained pressure from Sinn Féin among others, the Government introduced subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme in recent years in an attempt to bring costs down, but the reality is that they are still much too high for the majority of parents in the country. According to the 2022 Annual Early Years Sector Profile Report by Pobal, monthly full-time childcare fees average almost €800 per child.
Unaffordable childcare mounts pressure on parents, potentially forcing them to work less or not work at all. Sinn Féin is determined to make childcare affordable once and for all. We will ensure that a day of childcare will not cost any parent more than €10, and we have a plan to achieve this.
€10 A Day Childcare
Sinn Féin will deliver €10 a day childcare by giving subsidies to providers which bridge the gap between the actual costs of care and the €10 cap on the fees a parent can be charged per child. Therefore, if your provider is charging €40 a day for childcare, the State will provide a subsidy of €30 to bring the amount you pay to €10.
This means that if you have a child who attends childcare full-time, five days a week, you will go from paying €800 per month to paying €200 per month.
We would deliver this policy for children in centre-based childcare by September 2025. Extending the €10 per day cap to childminders will take longer because criteria for inclusion and registration will take time. We propose extending this scheme to cover between 90,000 – 100,000 additional children through the incorporation of childminders by the end of our first term in government.
Can it be done? International Precedents
Internationally, there are many examples of states capping childcare costs to deliver affordable childcare for parents.
In Denmark, for example, they operate a cap on the proportion of the parent contribution, often at a maximum of 30 percent of the cost. The State provides the funding for the remaining 70 percent of the cost. However, given that each municipal government sets the price of childcare, there is essentially a cap on the price parents pay.
Sweden operates a similar cap system, however, they do not cap the parental contribution at a percentage of cost, but at a percentage of family income. The cap depends on the level of household income. Like in Denmark, Swedish municipalities set the price of childcare in their jurisdictions, so once again, there is essentially a cap on the price parents pay.
The jurisdiction of British Columbia, in Canada, introduced a $10 a day programme. Similar to Ireland, Canada employ a package of subsidies. They also offer a subsidy directly for reduction of fees and the top-up of wages for childcare workers.
The practice of capping childcare fees to achieve stability and affordability in the childcare sector is not uncommon across Europe and indeed further afield.
Cost
The total additional cost of our proposal to deliver €10 a day childcare is estimated to be €345 million. In order for providers to avail of these supports, fee controls will apply so as to ensure that providers can run practices comfortably, but also so that the State gets value for money.
€10 A DAY CHILDCARE FOR ALL - Sinn Féin's Childcare Plan
Sinn Féin in government will deliver childcare at €10 a day because we recognise that good quality affordable childcare is essential for families and for the economy. Sinn Féin will lift the burden off hardworking families, many of whom are under pressure. We will make Ireland a better place to raise a family and build a future.